The World R:2 character Andante
by mokona206
Summary: In the loving "The World" version two that many have come to love, comes a new player named Andante who plans to explore "The World" herself encountering towns, areas, people, and adventures to grow to love "The World".
1. Chapter 1

**Login 0: "The World R:2"**

My friend once told me over lunch break about a game he had been playing for quite awhile. An MMORPG game called "The World". He claims it was the best game he's ever come across, being a pretty hardcore gamer himself. Since I was also a hardcore gamer like him, I was intrigued to listen.

He told me many stories of how he created his character, Keino, a twin blade user with short, cropped red hair; tight blue armor with green markings and gray spiked boots. He told me how it was really cool starting the game, but also kind of lame that since he just started he was considered a "noob" which is short term for a "newbie" player. A player that had just started "The World". So in order to grow out of that name, he quickly began to level up his character, meeting new people to join parties with and exploring more parts of "The World".

He asked me one day if I'd like to start playing it as well, but I was quick to politely decline his offer. I told him I was too busy trying to find a job and start making a living in society after graduating from a top university last year. Though I never started to play myself, I was always interested in hearing my friend's stories about his adventures with his character Keino. But I didn't know in a couple of months something devastating will happen that will affect and change "The World" forever.

It was in the news in the year 2015. There was an enormous fire that occurred and heavily damaged the data of the MMORPG, "The World". Despite that most of the data had been destroyed, CC Corp, also known as the CyberConnect Corporation that had created "The World", had begun working on another game to replace it.

When they released it in the real world, players of the previous "The World" weren't fully satisfied when they found out that they would have to start from scratch; not being able to access they're previous file from "The World" that was destroyed in the fire. There was much debate and talk over the release of the new version of "The World". My friend, being disappointed that he lost his character Keino who he grew to love very much, thought about giving the new version a try. But he'll create a completely new character; deciding to leave his beloved twin blade Keino in the previous "The World". This replacement game came to be known as "The World R:2". A revision of the previous "The World"; that I will soon be playing myself.

About two years later, I had landed myself a job that will bring me not only a place in society, but also a place in the MMORPG "The World R:2". While I was browsing a local bulletin in a hot sticky week of mid July and sighed with dissatisfaction for a reasonable job, a young man noticed what I was doing and came up to me, asking if I was interested in a job at CC Corp.

"CC Corp?" I questioned, "You mean the gaming company that created the MMORPG "The World" and also the new revision "The World R:2" that was released last year?"

"Yes, I see you are well informed about us," the young man laughed.

"I have a friend who used to play the original "The World", and now playing the new revision, I'm not a player myself, but hearing about "The World" so much stirs curiosity in me to research about it even further."

The man paused and examined me for a moment. Finally, he asked, "How would you like to be hired in CC Corp as a part-timer?"

"Huh?" I almost didn't catch what he said, but getting a job (even if it's part-time) at the well-known CC Corp was like getting a golden ticket to some unknown world filled with mystery. Although, it could be just a regular business job involving computers and one of the world's most global online games.

"You look diligent enough, as well as knowledgeable, to work with us. We'll even give you a copy of "The World R:2" for your computer as an added bonus. You only have to work some small jobs for us in the company as well as in "The World" itself. You're free to play "The World" as a regular player so you won't have to feel that you're only in it for the job. Are you interested?"

I thought to myself for a moment. I was fascinated with hearing about "The World", but who knew I would start playing it now as the second revision. Not only that, but also at CC Corp, that created "The World" itself. Sounds interesting enough; I was getting bored of the real world itself anyway trying to fit myself in the jigsaw of reality..

"Sure, I'll take you up on your offer. When do I start?"

**Login 1: Welcome to "The World"**

Installation complete

*click*

Character create:

Name: Andante  
Gender: Female  
Race: Human  
Class: Blade Brandier

*click* COMPLETED

Logging in...

Welcome to "The World"

Delta Server, Root Town Mac Anu

After spending time installing the game on my laptop, I finally was logging into "The World" that I had heard so much about. My PC, or Player Character, is a Blade Brandier, with long black hair tied into a braid, wearing a white, one-sleeved long coat with blue trim, blue shorts with a red belt fastened around it, loose buckled black boots, and painted black markings on the sleeveless arm. I chose the name Andante for my character, even though it sounds boyish for a female character. The name refers to a music term meaning "Walking tempo". The reason I chose that name was because I wanted to take everything slow and easy in a walking pace while playing the MMORPG "The World", not rushing into things. My adviser in CC Corp, who will be playing with me in "The World" as a male Steam Gunner PC named Welk, complimented that it was a good name for my character.

I warped in by the Chaos Gate, a warping device that can be used by players in the game to transfer to places such as other servers, towns, fields, and dungeons, inside the dome of Mac Anu taking a good look around me.

"Wow, the details of this game look pretty good." All around me I could see other players walking in and out, talking to each other, or using the Chaos Gate. Moments later, I heard someone laugh beside me. I turned to see a golden yellow haired player dressed in a red tunic with black buttons, matching black pants, and red shoes.

"Hey there, Andante," he smiled.

"You're...Welk?" I noted. Common knowledge is that players address players by their PC's name and not their real world one. It's for courtesy and privacy. Even though I know the player behind the PC Welk, I still address him by his PC name. I knew who he was right away because before logging in he had informed me via email what his PC looked like so I would be able to find him.

"That's right! Allow me to be the first to say to you, Welcome to The World."

"Thanks," I say back to him. We quickly exchange member addresses with each other in order to use it for specific functions such as forming a party, short mailing one another, or simply using private chat. Welk has already been playing the world as a regular player, and also as a system administrator for CC Corp. Since he's had more experience with this game, he plans to show me everything it's got. "So what are we doing first?" I ask.

"We'll plan on leveling up your character later, since you're new. How 'bout I show you around town?"

"Sure." We started to head outside of the dome to where the rest of the town is. By the time we got the central district where the majority of players were spending their time, Welk stopped for a moment.

"Hmm?"

"What's wrong?" I ask noticing his stop.

"A message from another system administrator," he whispered to me in private chat so other nearby players wouldn't hear. "Apparently there's an area they want me to check out for a bug in the system. Seems urgent..."

"Want me to come with you?" I offer, though I wasn't sure what much help I would be being a new player to "The World" and also a new employee to CC Corp.

"Thanks, but since you've just started this game the area might not suit your level. Plus, I'm unsure of what this bug might be, so it could be dangerous. Sorry, but can you explore the town on your own?"

"Sure, no problem. Be careful on your assignment," I tell him as he heads back to the Chaos Gate.

"Thanks. I'll try to get this done as soon as possible. Let's meet back here in a while."

"Okay," I call back and then he left. Although it felt a bit exciting to be left to explore on my own, I wasn't sure what to do first when I suddenly heard a yell.

"Huh?" I look over to my right and a saw a short, round, and pink beast PC being surrounded by three other PCs that looked bigger than him. The yell may have come from the beast PC, because it looked like the other three were pestering him. Whatever the case, they sure didn't look friendly at all. _This doesn't look good_, I noticed. _But what am I supposed to do?_ I didn't have much confidence yet on playing "The World". I recalled hearing about players like these guys, classified as "bullies" of "The World", although PKers are their more "formal" name.

"Huh?" One of them stopped for a moment and to look at me. _Oops, _I thought, _guess I must've been staring at them for too long_. "Who's this?" one of them scowled. "Another noob we can pick on? Ha ha, our lucky day!"

"..." as soon as they uttered that word, I felt an itching, upset feeling crawling up my back, but remained unresponsive. I've heard the term "noob" before from my old friend. Already, it didn't make me feel happy. _PKers, or rather, Player Killers,_ I thought, _since it didn't seem like they have any manners around here picking on new players._

Player Killers…players that hunt, bully, and pester other players in "The World".

"What's the matter?" one of them taunted, "Too scared to speak?" They all looked at me, including the beast PC. He still looked scared, but he might just be relying on me to help him out. I wasn't sure what to do, but I already got myself into this situation that escape seems nearly impossible and I had a feeling this guy needs my help. Not just as a system administrator, but also as a player.

"Tch," I respond letting my anger boil in control, "as if!"

"What?"

"You three must be PKers, judging from that attitude. Let me just tell you one thing: you guys don't interest me one bit. You guys may be strong, but doing this kind of stuff to other players here seems dirty!"

"Why you!" one of them darted forward and motioned to grab me by the neck. I composed my face despite their action so not to give in and look like a coward. I prepared myself for any action they planned to make, but before one could do anything to me, they all stopped and looked up for a moment. "Darn, perfect timing for our master," the PKers spat. They shoved past me and ran. "We're not done with you yet, noob, but remember this! If we ever cross paths again, it will be a fight!" Then they were gone.

I motioned my PC to brush off the spot that they shoved by my character. _Not too bad for my first encounter with a PK_. I wasn't nearly afraid as I should have been, since it's known that in "The World", PKing in a town usually isn't allowed. But I would've been ready, whether they would PK me or not. Though I did wonder why they stopped and what the meant by "master". I'll have to ask Welk about it later.

Then I remembered about the beast PC. He was still in the same spot he was in before, so I rushed over to him.

"You okay?" I ask. Looking up closely, he doesn't look nearly as strong as the PKers, but his character is a little higher level than me. By selecting his character with my controller, I could see his name and class. His class indicated he was a Shadow Warlock.

"Y-Yeah, thank you!" he exclaimed.

"No problem. Those three were PKers, right? What are they doing picking on someone like you?"

"Oh," he looks kind of down but answers, "They enjoy picking on people like me, and since I'm a beast creature I'm easy to pick on. It happens to me a lot lately."

"That's not right," I sigh. I knew I've had some experience with bullies in the real world myself, so I understood what it must have felt like to get picked on. Though since I was pretty tough, I could handle them pretty well. When my friend who introduced me to The World told me about the times when his PC has gotten PKed (the term of being killed by a PKer), I asked him, _then why don't you ever go report about it or something so you won't be bothered again? _He lightly laughs about this and responded, _The World doesn't really have any concrete rules. That's why there are PKers roaming about. There are some people who act up against them, but most people are too afraid to deal with them. Some don't even care, as long as they don't get PKed themselves. They only pick on people lower than them, so if I get up to a higher level they'd probably stop. _He still told me though that he doesn't favor the fact of PKing others, even though he can't do much about it.

Snapping out of my past, I asked, "Anyway, so what's your name?"

"Oh!" he suddenly brightens up, "I'm Gaspard! Nice to meet you!" While I could merely look on his PC to find his name, it felt more appropriate to do introductions directly in conversations.

"My name's Andante. I just started playing this game," I tell him, "I was supposed to look around town with someone, but he had some urgent business to take care of so I'm stuck on my own."

"Hey," Gaspard suddenly says as if he's gotten an idea, "since you saved me from those PKers, why don't I show you around town!"

"Y-You sure? I mean, I'm still a level 1 character and you might have some other business you need to-"

"No no, it's alright. Helping newbies of "The World" is what our guild does the best!" he smiles. Though only minutes ago he was surrounded by PKers, he smiled like he could take anything on.

"Huh? Your guild?" According to my knowledge, a guild is like a club that a player can form. With each guild, there's the HOME where the guild is located, and each guild has a guild master. The guild master's usually the player who formed the guild, but the role can be passed down to other players if they pass the Guild Master Certification Event given by a grunty, that supposedly manages the guild as well. If you pass the event, you'll be accepted as the guild master. Many guilds are created and serve many purposes.

"Yep! I'm part of a newbie-support guild named Canard! Currently there are only a few members, but you can join too if you'd like! Since you're new to playing "The World", right?"

Welk may take awhile, and joining a guild might not be so bad since it's true that I'm still at level 1. I'll be able to meet more people as well.

"Sure," I agreed and we exchanged member addresses.

"I'll take you to our guild so you can meet our members, and then we can go have some fun playing "The World"!"


	2. Chapter 2

**Login 2: Canard**

Since we were in the central district and the HOME was located at the mercenary district, a different section of the town, we took a warp point to quickly transfer between the locations. When we got to the entrance, Gaspard stopped for a moment.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" He quickly turned around and handed me something. A notice showed up on my screen displaying, _you've received the CANARD KEY._

"What's this?" I ask.

"It's a special key to get into Canard. You can only access guilds if you have a guild key to a specific guild."

"Can I use it for all guilds?" I ask randomly, but then realize how stupid that sounds. Gaspard just laughs.

"Hee hee, no, but you can use it for our guild! Canard's a lot of fun, so I hope you'll stay with us!" I nodded and used the key at a barren-down looking door. A small menu box appeared listing all the guilds I could access. Since Canard was my first guild to join, it was the only guild listed in the menu. Clicking on its name, we were transferred inside.

The first thing I noticed when we were transferred in besides the spacious square room setting was another player standing in the room. A PC with short brown hair, with a long tied ponytail, and dressed in green clothes. I also notice his class is also a Blade Brandier, like me. While Shadow Warlock PCs are magic users, Blade Brandiers use a simple sword like a katana. The green PC heard our entrance and turned around.

"Gaspard, are you okay? You sure took awhile," he exclaimed coming forward.

"Sorry Silabus, I ran into some trouble," Gaspard sighed.

"Some trouble? Did you get bullied again? Was it those PKers from Kestrel?" Silabus asked as he tried to cheer up his friend.

"I don't know, but I was saved by this girl," Gaspard suddenly brightens up and looks towards me. I kind of blush at the sudden mention of me saving him and quickly step forward to introduce myself.

"I'm Andante. I just started playing this game. I was walking around town when I heard a yell and saw this guy being surrounded by other players..."

"Yeah! And suddenly she's standing up for me! It kind of got rough, but she managed to drive those PKers away!" Gaspard cheered.

"I didn't...it wasn't like that," I muttered, "They only stopped because they seemed to have received a message from someone they called "master" or something."

"Oh, they must have received a call from their guild master, Gabi," the guy dressed in green explains, "and he's..."

"Silabus!" Gaspard suddenly interrupts, "We should get Andante officially registered in Canard first."

"Oh, that's why she's here, huh? Sorry, I got a little off topic there. By the way, I'm Silabus, nice to meet you. I'm also a member of Canard. We'll get you registered right away, so you'll get an email about it later. Then, you'll officially be a member of Canard!" He then exchanged member addresses with me. "Just so you know, Canard's name comes from stabilizer wings on aircrafts that support the plane. Our guild's main goal is to help new players to The World like while having lots of fun enjoying it. So, welcome aboard!"

"Hooray!" Gaspard cheered, "Another member to our guild! Wait till we tell Haseo!"

"Haseo?" I ask.

"Our guild master, " Silabus explains, "he's sort of always busy with some pretty important stuff, but it turns out he has great leadership skills so we made him our guild master. At first, he was pretty hesitant about it, but he finally decided to give it a try. He'll probably be back later, so we'll introduce you to him then. So, since you're a new player, have you gotten used to "The World" yet?"

"So far I've only managed to explore the central district before meeting Gaspard."

"So I volunteered us to give her a personal tour!" Gaspard explains, "Since she helped me out with those PKers."

"All right then, let's giver her a tour!" Silabus agrees, "That is what Canard's here for. If you'd like, after we give you a tour of the town, we can go to an area to teach you the basics of battling. You'll need to learn them in order to fight monsters in areas and dungeons in order to level up. There's no need to rush anything, so we can take it pretty slowly for you to get used to it."

"Sure, sounds good," I nodded. I wasn't sure how long Welk would take, so it'll be fine just stick with these guys for now to get used to playing "The World".

When we were standing outside in the mercenary district, Silabus goes over some basic knowledge about the root town, Mac Anu. Mac Anu's full and formal name is known as the Eternal City, Mac Anu. It is the root town of the delta server, and is divided into several districts such as the Mercenary district where, I now knew, Canard's At Home is located as well as some of the shops. While I am working part time in CC Corp I should listen from these two to hear more about "The World". It's also nice to start communicating with other players to since they've probably had more experience rather than trying to find out all the information myself. While we were passing through Mac Anu's harbor, Gaspard suddenly brings up a conversation.

"You know, standing here with Andante reminds me of when we stood here with Haseo!"

"Oh yeah," Silabus exclaims, "Haseo was also a newbie player when we met up with him here. Although, he may have not have been a newbie, but his level was at level one."

"What do you mean he may have not been a newbie?" I asked.

"Well..." Silabus thinks for a moment.

"Haseo told us he was really the famous PKK, the "Terror of Death"!" Gaspard explains. PKs were player killers that kill other players for sport. But PKKs hunted on Player Killers themselves. There have been rumors about them that what they do seem like justice, but people say it's still similar to what PKs do. The name Haseo doesn't seem familiar to me though.

"Haseo..."Terror of Death"...doesn't sound familiar," I respond. Not that I expected to know anyway. _After all, I've just started playing this game._

"Yeah, at first we didn't believe him either," Silabus admits.

Gaspard starts laughing, "Yeah! Because he claimed to be a famous PKK, and he was only at level 1. Whahahaha!"

"Uh...that was because-" Silabus tried to explain.

"What's so funny!" a loud, edgy voice interrupted. We all jumped and looked behind us. It was an adept rouge dressed in all black scowling and shaking his fist.

"Wha-Haseo!" Gaspard sudden exclaimed as the adept rouge made his way over here. I gave a long look at the PC Haseo. He's a famous PKK, but he's also the guild master of Canard? Canard is to help new players, so it seems like an odd mix to have a PKK to be the guild master. _He might still be dangerous_, I thought. I quickly moved my PC in front of Gaspard and Silabus.

"Hold it!" I exclaimed.

"Huh?" the black adept rouge stops and looks at me. "And just who the heck are you?"

"I won't let you hurt them!" I warned ignoring his question.

"Andante?" Silabus exclaims.

"Huh? What do you mean, "hurt them"? They're my guild members!" Haseo scoffs.

"You may be a guild master of a newbie-support guild, but you're also a legendary PKK. Isn't that kind of dangerous?" I ask in a cautious tone.

"..." the black adept rouge suddenly looks at Gaspard with a deathly look. Gaspard starts to shake a bit in fear; I move myself in front of him.

"Now now," Silabus interrupts and we all turn to look at him, "there's no reason to pick a fight."

"What the hell is going on, Silabus! Why does this player think I'm dangerous?" He goes up to Silabus shouting. I tried to get in front of him, but he just pushes me away and I fall down on the ground.

"Haseo!" Gaspard whines. Gaspard tries to help me up, but I just stand on my own irritated. What's this guy's problem? How can someone like him be the guild master of Canard?

"Calm down Haseo; just listen for a minute," Silabus continues. "Her name is Andante, and she's our newest member of Canard. She just started playing "The World" and met Gaspard when he was being bullied by some PKers. Andante stood up for him and to return the favor we let her join our guild since she's a newbie and we planned to show her around town." We all fell silent for a moment after Silabus finished explaining

"Hmph," Haseo grunts and looks at me, "and why does she think I'm dangerous?"

"Well, Gaspard was saying how showing her around here reminds us of the time when we first met you and-"

"We told her that you were a famous PKK nicknamed the "Terror of Death" and that's when you came along, " Gaspard finished and kind of laughed. Haseo looked at me for a second and walked forward. For some reason, I held my position, but he relaxed and lost of bit of his scowl.

"...S-Sorry," he exclaimed.

"Huh?" For what?" I was taken by surprised. Why is a famous PKK apologizing to newbie like me?

"For...yelling at you and shoving...you like that. I didn't know you were a new member of Canard," he kind of muttered.

I started to relax a bit too, "Oh...it's fine. I was the one who started this. I'm sorry for the misunderstanding."

"Say Haseo? Since you're already here, why don't you properly introduce yourself since you are Canard's guild master," Silabus offers.

"Yeah, come on Haseo!" Gaspard agreed.

"All right already," Haseo sighs as his guild members smile and push him a bit forward and looks at me. He holds out his hand and gives me his member address, "I'm Haseo, the guild master of Canard. For your information, I'm not really much the PKK "Terror of Death" anymore. It's sort of a long story, but..."

"But then he met us and a lot of other people and had a change of heart!" Gaspard laughed.

"Gaspard!" Haseo whispered.

"It's true," Silabus joined in, "you did change after meeting all of us. Maybe a bit more when you get to know Andante now that she's part of our guild."

"Y-Yeah, I guess," Haseo mutters again. I kind of laugh and introduce myself.

"Pleasure to meet you, Haseo. I'm Andante," I hand him my member address.

"Anyway," Silabus continues, "we were planning to take Andante to an area to teach her the basics of fighting. Would you like to come, Haseo? One of us can switch out so you can join."

"Nah, you guys go on ahead. I still have some business to take care of."

"Okay then, see you later," Silabus calls.

"See you later, Haseo!" Gaspard exclaims.

I look at him again before we leave, "Yeah, see ya, Haseo."

He turns and looks at me, gives me a little wave, and heads off. We wait till he's out of sight before we start moving again.

"Man, Haseo is really cool, isn't he?" Gaspard smiles.

"Yeah, he is," Silabus agrees, "but I do worry about him a lot."

"Huh? Why's that? He looks pretty tough for PKers," I observe.

"Well, it's not that he'd get picked on. It's just that he kind of has to go through a lot of stuff that's weighing on his shoulders."

I was about to ask them what kind of stuff, but I didn't want to get pry on other people's business. So I asked, "Have you ever asked him about it?"

"We have," Silabus answered, "a few times, but sometimes it's just better to leave things the way to are. In other words, we don't want to get nosy on what Haseo is doing. We do worry, but he says he's fine. He's a pretty strong character on the inside, but sometimes he does need support from others even if he doesn't ask for it."

"Hmmm," I wondered. We had arrived back at the Chaos Gate, where I stood moments ago on my first log in to "The World". "So what area are we headed to?"

"Delta Peaceful Leading Freedom. It's a good area to start with for new players," Silabus suggested.

"Yay, we get to go on an adventure!" Gaspard cheered. I felt pretty excited myself, but I restrained myself not feel embarrassed.

"Alright then," I exclaimed, "let's go!" The three of us formed a party together, and then Silabus entered the key words from the Chaos Gate function in order for us to warp to the area. Transfer rings appeared around us, and the scenery of Mac Anu's dome was left behind.


	3. Chapter 3

**Login 3: Adventure and a Bug in the System**

-Delta Peaceful Leading Freedom-

We warped into what looked like a cave themed dungeon. Music fitting for the dungeon's theme was playing in the background. Although I've felt pretty confident about playing so far, I felt kind of nervous right now. But since I've got a party to back me up I'm sure I'll be okay with learning how to fight.

"Let's go ahead and find us a couple of monsters first," Silabus started off, "I'll explain the battle basics as we go. You ready?"

"Yeah," I give a small nod.

"All right then, let's gooooo!" Gaspard shouted. The three of us started to head off. We followed the map on our screen until we reached the first room, where there were three goblin monsters standing before us. They appeared to be pretty easy targets for newbies, so Silabus began explaining how to select and attack it before letting me give it a try. I nodded and pulled out my blade weapon and charged to attack. The goblins were just standing there for a moment, and when I swung my weapon at them, I thought I hit one of them dead on, but…

"Huh? What the-" I had missed, and amidst my distraction one of the goblins took this opportunity to swing at me. Since I was still at level 1, the attack threw me backwards as I slid against the dungeon floor. "OOF!" I gasped as I tried to regain my balance.

"Andante!" Gaspard quickly used a healing item on me while Silabus moved forward to distract the goblin. I quickly recovered and jumped back in again to give it another shot. This time, thanks to Silabus' distraction, I was able to land a hit and finish off the goblin.

I had a bit of trouble adjusting to the fighting style, but all along the way, Silabus and Gaspard took turns explaining and showing me tips on how to fight in a battle. There were battle functions that were easy to use such as skill attacks that inflicted slightly higher damage to monsters than regular and attacks. Then there were some functions that took a while to grasp, such as a team skill called Awakening. Battle after battle I managed to get used to fighting, as well as acquiring items and upgrading my levels. I wasn't as strong as Silabus or Gaspard yet, but I didn't feel much like a newbie anymore.

"So," I exclaim as we finished up another battle, "how long have you guys known Haseo?"

"Hmm? Oh, well, it feels like we've known him for quite a while now," Silabus recalls, "it was quite unexpected how we met, but I feel really glad we did. Haseo is a really cool guy despite his outer appearance. Once you get to know him more, he's a lot fun to hang around with. Although I'm not so sure he would call it fun himself, ha ha."

"He's really strong too!" Gaspard added, "Way stronger than us now, hee hee." _A former PKK that suddenly changes and hangs out with players such as Silabus and Gaspard_, I thought to myself again. _That sounds like a pretty strange story to me._

"He mentioned earlier that he isn't really the PKK "Terror of Death" anymore. I wonder how he changed from being a famous PKK to being a normal guild master of a newbie-support guild. That seems like a pretty big turnaround to me."

"Although Gaspard and I have spent a lot of time around him, even we're not sure about the details regarding that," Silabus added.

When we continued battling and making our way through the dungeon, I began to think about what I've been feeling in "The World" so far since I first logged in. There was a warm feeling about meeting Silabus and Gaspard, an odd and nervous feeling about meeting Haseo, and a blossoming love to using my player Andante. I wonder…if this was how my friend who first told me about "The World" felt when he went on his first adventure.

Moments later Silabus exclaimed, "Okay, it looks like all the monsters of this dungeon are cleared. Let's head to the beast statue, shall we?"

"The beast statue is where you'll get an award for clearing the dungeon, like a higher level weapon or armor. Sometimes it's a rare item," Gaspard continued. But just as we were moving from our current position, something caught me eye.

"Huh?" I turned around to one of the dungeon's walls. At first I didn't see anything except the usual graphics, although I could have sworn there was something there that wasn't before. Silabus had said we already cleared all the monsters, but what I saw seemed smaller than a monster, almost hidden.

"What's wrong Andante?" Silabus asked as he and Gaspard noticed my sudden pause.

"Oh, sorry, coming!" I quickly reply. _It must be my imagination, _I thought. But as I turned around and started walking back to Silabus and Gaspard, a strange noise ripped through the BG music causing me to freeze and cover me ears for a moment. Suddenly, I realized I couldn't move my PC, and there were black spots bubbling on my PC's legs.

"What the-" I gasped, "W-What is this?" I tried pressing all the buttons I could on my controller, but nothing happened. Silabus and Gaspard had also noticed the black spots and stopped in fear.

"Andante!" Silabus called. _Oh man_, he thought, _this looks like trouble!_

"I-Is...Is that the bug we've heard about in the Rumors Board?" Gaspard cried. Whatever it was, I suddenly began to feel weird, not to mention helpless for not being able to control anything. Silabus and Gaspard were heading over to me immediately, but something didn't feel right so I was going to yell to them to stop. Another voice called out instead.

"Stop! Don't move any closer!" A voice yelled. The three of us turned and looked up. A PC with long blue hair in a ponytail dressed in yellow and tan clothes appeared running toward us with a panicked expression.

"Ah...Kuhn!" Silabus and Gaspard cried in unison. The PC named Kuhn came up beside them, and looked at me with a grave expression.

"K...K-Kuhn?" I breathed but my voice sounded so far away.

"What's going on here?" Kuhn asked Silabus because Gaspard was...crying?

"We were adventuring here with a new player to "The World", and suddenly..." It was obvious that Silabus was freaking out. But…what exactly is happening to my PC?

Kuhn looked at me as if somehow he knew how I was in trouble. He whispered to Silabus and Gaspard, "Don't worry, I'll take it from here. Just stand back." After he assured my two worried friends, he began glowing as he yelled something about "Magus". I lost consciousness after that.

It felt like hours have past, but whenever I go on these online games I never seem to be aware of exactly how much time has passed. I was informed later it was only a few minutes.

"Is she going to be okay?" A worried voice asked. Even though it was faint, I could tell it was Silabus.

"She's going to be just fine. Her character was damaged a little bit, but she's recovering. See?" I finally was able to open my eyes regaining my consciousness both in "The World" and the real world. The blue haired character named Kuhn and Silabus were peering down at me. I seemed to be lying down at Canard's HOME. But how did I get here? And what happened back at the dungeon?

Struggling to sit up, I tried to talk, "Uh...what happened?"

"Easy now, don't push yourself," the blue haired character exclaimed, "you just experienced a bit of a shock from a bug in the system. You're okay now."

"How do you feel?" Silabus asked worriedly.

"I guess I'm fine then," I reassured him standing up. I looked around, but it was only the blue haired character and Silabus around. "Where's Gaspard?"

"He logged out," Silabus explained, "the event that had happened caused a bit of a shock for him too. He just got a bit freaked out so he says he's logging out for the day. Oh, that's right...uh." Silabus looked over to the other character in the room.

"Oh, hey there, time to introduce myself. My name is Kuhn. I'm a good friend of Silabus and Gaspard. I used to be the guild master of Canard and also the founder of this guild."

"Andante," I introduce myself to him. He turns silent for a moment and gives me a curious look.

"Andante, huh. Say, do you happen to know a player by the name of Welk?" he asked me. Huh? This guy knows Welk as well? Then again, I shouldn't be surprised, seeing how big "The World" is.

"Yeah, uh, he's…a friend of mine." Or rather my supervisor at CC Corp, but I didn't want to say that in front of someone I had just met, or even Silabus for that matter.

"I see. I happened to meet him at an area while taking care of some business. He mentioned you to me while we were talking. I also have a message from him to tell you that he'll meet you at the chaos gate of Mac Anu tomorrow," Kuhn informs me. I nodded, feeling a bit curious at how much Kuhn knew of Welk. I wondered if he knew Welk was a system administrator, or just as a regular player. He then changes the subject a little, "So, I see you've met Silabus and Gaspard."

"Yeah. Andante is the one who helped Gaspard when he was getting bullied by those Kestrel PKers," Silabus informed Kuhn, "even though she was only a newbie. In returning the favor, Gaspard and I are helping her get used to "The World". She even joined our guild!"

"I see. Thanks for looking out for Gaspard. Well, I got to run, but call me anytime you need help on anything. I also have a feeling we'll be seeing each other a lot soon." Kuhn exchanged member addresses with me and left.

"Bye Kuhn," Silabus called. He turned back to me, "Well, it's been quite a day, hasn't it? Since you've been through a lot, I suggest you should log out for today to rest."

"All right," I agreed.

"See you later, Andante," Silabus waved as I logged out of "The World".

When I logged out of the world and took off my M2D (shaped glasses that players use while online in "The World" as their span of vision, creating a lifelike feeling of seeing "The World") for the first time since I first logged in, I felt sweat all over my eyes. Guess that experience I had with that bug was pretty intense. Just what kind of bug was that? Before I could pull together any thoughts, there was a short notification alert that I had unread messages in my email inbox. Guess I should check those.

The first couple of messages were notifications about installing "The World", as well as an email about joining Canard. So I quickly went through each one. The next one was from Silabus.

To: Adante

From: Silabus

How are you?

_Hello Andante! Thanks for a great adventure today. I hope you had fun on your first adventure. It got kind of rough in the end. Luckily Kuhn appeared to help us. I'm not sure what exactly Kuhn did, but the important thing was that he was able to help you. Well, see you around!_

I typed in a short reply

To: Silabus

From: Andante

RE: How are you?

_Yeah, thanks for taking me on an adventure. It was great. Let's go on another adventure again sometime._

The next message was from Kuhn.

To: Andante

From: Kuhn

Welcome to "The World"

_Hey there, Andante. I know it seems like out of the blue to send you an email like this after we've just met, but it seems like we both already know each other. We just haven't realized it yet. Once again, I'm Kuhn. Like I mentioned before, I was the founder of Canard and also the former guild master before their current guild master Haseo. You've probably met him since you joined the guild yourself. I'm also a part-timer at CC Corp like you. Ha ha, it looks like we'll be co-workers both in the real world and also in "The World". I look forward to working together._

_Oh, one more thing. About earlier...since you'll be working in CC Corp I guess I should explain it to you. Welk might mention it sometime anyway. It seems too much to put on this email, so how about the next time you log in we'll meet somewhere and I'll tell you more about the "bug" you experienced. Just give me a call._

So that's it. Kuhn also works at CC Corp; no wonder he knew about Welk. I wondered what it would be like getting to know Kuhn's player before opening up the last message. It was from Welk, but it was kept brief though.

To: Andante

From: Welk

Sorry about today

_Hey there, Kiddo. Sorry about today. Business at CC Corp has really been picking up it's pace. I ran into another part-timer like you. A player who uses a steam gunner like myself named Kuhn. Perhaps you've met him. If not, I'll introduce you to him sometime. I'm going to be really busy from now on, so I mentioned you to Kuhn. He looks a little older than you, and he's got some experience so it'll be good to hang around him when I'm not there. Take care._

I gave a small sigh. Poor Welk…it seems like he's already busy at CC Corp. I sent him a short reply back telling him I met Kuhn earlier. I was also going to type about the bug I ran into during my adventure, but I decided against it. It'd probably be a better idea to talk to Kuhn first about this. There weren't any other emails left, and once I gave a long yawn I decided to call it a night. It has been a long day, and playing The World kind of gets me wondering how my old friend is doing. Who knows, perhaps I'll run into him sometime in "The World".

The next day I found myself sprawled on the floor off my bed mattress in my small apartment. When my vision came to I glanced over to my digital clock by my laptop. It read 11:00 AM, and then my panic started. I woke up one hour later than I set my alarm to.

"Oh man! What should I do? I'm supposed to be at CC Corp by 11:15 AM!" I cried as I stumbled off the floor to grab all my stuff. I already missed the early noon train to head over to my first day to officially start at CC Corp. I quickly dashed out with my messenger bag, a slice of toast half stuffed in my mouth, and hailed a taxi. When I got in and begged the driver to get going, I tried to call the player behind Welk, Yokuro Akaruda, on my cell. But the line ended up busy so I texted him instead. I hoped I wouldn't end up to late on my first official day at CC Corp. CC Corp doesn't exactly look as glamorous as the game, but it's amazing enough that it came up with a MMORPG that is well known as The World. As I arrived and nearly sprinted out to head into the direction of where I would be working, I ran into someone as I turned on a corner inside the lobby.

"OOF!" I gasped and falling backwards, with my bag dropping down in a thud. The person I ran into fell the same way, only his papers that he was carrying flew into the air for a moment before landing down all around us.

"Ugh, dropped them again," I looked in front of me to see a young man scratching his head and looking at the papers he dropped. "Sorry about that," he apologized looking up at me giving a small clumsy smile, "I should have watched where I was going."

"Oh, no, y-you don't have to apologize," I tell him as I quickly get up. I double-checked my bag that held my laptop and game accessories for The World to make sure nothing's broken. When I see that there wasn't any damage, I noticed the papers the man dropped and bent down to help him pick them up. After we picked them all up, the young man introduced himself as Tomonari Kasumi. I look at him for a moment and notice he looks just a bit older than me.

"So…are you a new worker here at CC Corp?" Tomonari asked.

"Yes, I'm…." I was going to introduce myself, but suddenly someone came up beside me and placed a hand on top of my hat I was wearing.

"Himonoko Rai," Yokuro Akaruda introduced me giving me a small wink, "or should we call you, Andante?"

I gave a small laugh, "I'm only Andante in "The World" you know. In reality, my name is Rai." The young man in front of us dropped his papers again staring at me with a surprised expression.

"No way! Is it really…is it really you, Andante? I mean, Rai…."

Now it was my turn to be surprised, "Wait, don't tell me…"

"Yep," Yokuro intervened, "This is Tomonari Kasumi, the player behind the steam gunner Kuhn in "The World"." We both looked at each other bewildered and started laughing. Both of us didn't really look exactly like our characters in The World, and that's usually how people are. My eye and hair color are the same in both worlds, except my hair isn't exactly as long as my character's and I was slightly shorter in the real world. Tomonari's hair was obviously shorter than his character's, but his face looks kind of the same. I never really expected I was meeting the player behind Kuhn in the real world as soon as today. But after a moment I could slightly feel a deep connection between Tomonari Kasumi and Kuhn. I wondered if Tomonari felt the same when he saw me.

Later, as Tomonari finished picking up his papers again, he offered to lead me to my workplace. When I agreed, Welk coughed and exclaimed he'll come along as well. When I asked him why, he gave me a small wink.

"More the merrier!" It sounded like an excuse, but Yokuro said I'd find out the real reason in "The World" when I see Kuhn again sometime. I gave a small laugh and wondered what exactly did Kuhn do for him to respond like that.

Today was going to be as much of another adventure as my first log-in into The World.


	4. Chapter 4

**Login 4: Haseo**

When I logged into The World again, I noticed Welk was already standing by the Chaos Gate in the now familiar dome of Mac Anu. He smiled when he noticed my entrance.

"Sorry to have kept you waiting!" I quickly apologize bowing to remember my manners.

"Hey, it's okay. I just logged into The World myself a few minutes ago," he laughed like the way he did on my first login. While we're now officially co-workers at CC Corp, we each work in different areas. Since Welk has more experience than I do and is also enrolled full-time, he handles more advanced tasks. I work in the same area as Kuhn, or rather, Tomonari Kasumi. Meeting each other the other day, we're nearly the same age, but like Welk, Kuhn also has a bit more experience with CC Corp as well as playing The World. He's willing to help me out though if I ever need anything.

We entered private chat with each other in order to discuss CC Corp business without being overheard by other players.

"So what are we assigned to do today?" I asked. Ever since I started playing The World I've experienced a lot with my first area, party, guild, and also…bug. I have a feeling that today I'll start working on tasks like Welk would normally take on for CC Corp. Then I remembered what Kuhn had mentioned in his email about the bug I experienced. I wondered if I should talk to Welk about it.

But Welk's response was the total opposite of what I would expect before I said anything, "I need you to walk around town to gather information from other players about anything unusual or abnormal from The World's normal functions. You can start in any district; whichever is convenient for you. I suggest just hanging around players to hear what they're saying is a good way to start. Like…pretending you're enjoying the scenery or waiting for someone."

"You mean like eavesdropping?" I suddenly ask. Welk gives me a small nod. "Isn't that kind of rude to do?"

"It seems like it, but think of it as your first job. You don't have to stay in the same place long, but move around a bit to other places. You'll be surprised how much information you'll come across. And anything will do as far as the information goes; rumors, area words, and bugs especially."

"Okay, then what am I supposed to do with the information I gather?"

"That'll be your test to keep it in your memory. Write it down somewhere if you need to. Then, go and investigate the information you've gathered. If it's an area, I suggest taking Kuhn with you, in case it's dangerous alone. I'd love to help, but CC Corp's got my schedule tight." I nodded and left Welk to get an early start. There are usually quite a few players in the central district, so I decided to begin from there, pretending to browse among the guild shops. There wasn't much at first; just the usually chit chat about real life activities, areas for good items or leveling up that I took note of for my own knowledge, and item trades. When nothing else important came up, I warped to the mercenary district next. As I warped in and started walking a bit, a small shadow warlock PC brought up a conversation that reached my ears.

"I heard there's a character that knows something about the bug people have been going on about on the Rumors board. I think someone saw them go into the back alley behind Mac Anu's Mercenary district."

"Someone that knows something about the bug of the Rumors board?" I repeated to myself. They said the PC went down the alley of this district. I took a glance at the town map on my screen and noticed the alley the shadow warlock indicated. Since it'll probably be a small chat I thought it would be okay to go alone. I hurried over and down the alley, seeing no one at first, until at the dead end. There were three PCs all huddled in a small circle. One of these guys must know about the bug, I thought. I called out to them.

"Hey," I exclaimed. All three of them turned in unison to look at me. When I could see their faces, a shock ran down my spine. It was the three PKers I first met on my first log-in to The World.

"Well well, if it isn't the noob hero," one of them laughed cracking a smile, "Have you come back for more?" They walked around and surrounded me grinning with creepy smiles on their PC faces. Since we were in the alley, other PCs wouldn't be coming here. That would mean…I was alone. I was thinking about sending a short mail for some help, but who would I send it to? I didn't want to involve Silabus or Gaspard again, and Welk and Kuhn were busy at the moment. There was still one more person available, but before I could send it, the PKers pushed me against the wall.

"You may have won that first time, but this time there will be no more interference!" They spat at me. Anger was beginning to boil under my skin. It was a bad habit of mine, but I couldn't help but add oil to their fire.

"Funny, I didn't know you guys needed to isolate me away from other players in order to pick on me. What's with you guys? Cowering in the shadows…" I began laughing even though I clearly knew I'd be eating my own words in the next moment.

"Laugh all you want girl, because this one is for kestrel!" They didn't have the patience to listen to me continue. Growling snarls with each other, they immediately began kicking and punching at my PC. I real life, I wouldn't feel any pain physically. Mentally though I wasn't feeling anything good. It wasn't the same kind of feeling as when I encountered the bug on my first adventure. I was beginning to feel…furious. How can these guys just suddenly push around another PC, and in town? My mind was wrapped in so much confusion I forgot about sending short mail to anyone.

I had been bullied several times when I was in middle school because I was always standing up for someone and felt that they shouldn't pick on people for their own pleasure. It always got rough, and sometimes parents were involved, but it helped me grow strong being able to support others. This time, it was going to be a fight to protect myself. My mind snapped into action and I was able to catch of the PKer's fists with my hand and roughly shove him back. The PK, having caught off-guard with a surprise mood, fell backwards. The other two were also caught distracted, so I took this chance to run past them in order to get out of the alley. Heavier footsteps echoed behind me as the PKers followed me on my trail.

Sprinting free back out in the open area of the mercenary district, I had planned to run to Canard's At HOME in order to lose them for good when my PC had collided last minute into another PC bringing me to a stop. I was about to apologize when the PC yelled at me in a voice I clearly recognized.

"Watch it! Geez, what is it with people running into me? Do I have some type of sign taped on my back saying 'Please run into me'?" I looked up to see the usual scowling face of a black adept rouge. Canard's guild master, Haseo.

I was about to protest that I didn't do it on purpose when I heard three sets of footsteps screech to a halt behind me. I had almost forgotten I was running away from three PKs. But something changed that would save my throat. The three PKers stopped and gasped when they saw for the first time who I was with.

"It's…It's the T-Terror of Death!" one of them exclaimed.

"Run for it!" Another cried. The PKers that previously spoke all high and mighty fled like cowards with tails between their legs. The black adept rogue scowled even harder at them, but made no move to chase after them. When they had fled completely out of sight, he turned back towards me. Since his PC was still scowling, I wasn't sure whether or not I should say anything, but then he extended a hand and motioned me to take it.

"What are you doing being chased by those players?" he asked in what sounded like a little concern.

"Umm…" When I wasn't able to form an answer on the spot, Haseo suggested we head inside Canard. Inside the Home he waited for me to speak again, but I wasn't sure what to say. So I asked him, "Haseo…you used to be a PKK, right?"

"Huh-why bring that up?" he exclaimed nervously, "Yeah…but that was a long time ago…" _Or so it feels like it, _He thought.

"PKKs do the same thing as PKs…but why? How can people like that do that kind of stuff? Doesn't it seem cruel or…wrong? What is it exactly? It's-" I realized I was yelling at this point. It's a bad habit of mine that always gets me in trouble, both in the real world and now "The World". Haseo thought for a moment to choose the right words to say carefully, but the more I waited for him to answer the more it looked like he didn't know himself. Could that mean that Haseo is still—

"Hey there Haseo! And Andante's here too!" We both looked up and saw Silabus and Gaspard walk in. They smiled at us, but soon their smiles turned to worry when they saw our faces. My emotions must be overwhelming me to almost give myself away.

"U-Uh, hey…" I sort of gave a weak smile.

"Is something wrong?" Silabus asked. I was about to give an excuse, but thoughts escaped me. _They will just see through it, so why bother try to make it up, it'll just cause more worries, _I thought. _But..._

"No, not really!" I suddenly brightened up surprising Silabus, Gaspard, and also Haseo. "I was just asking Haseo a quick question. I'm kinda tired now, so I'm going to log out. I'll catch you guys later!" I ran out leaving Silabus, Gaspard, and Haseo all looking at me with surprised expressions. Once I was gone, Silabus and Gaspard looked back to Haseo for a different explanation.

"She…wanted to know…why PKs exist. But I…I wasn't able to give her an answer," Haseo confessed.

"Oh…was it because we interrupted?" Silabus replied.

"No, it's not your fault. I just…wasn't sure what to tell her. After all, I used to be a PKK myself."

"Ahaha," Silabus started laughing all of a sudden.

"W-Wha…what's so funny?" Haseo muttered.

"Haseo, you didn't seem at all like a PKK, or a PK for that matter, when Gaspard and I first met you," Silabus smiled.

"Yeah," Gaspard cut in, "You're a really nice guy Haseo. You even helped us once at our guild shop!"

"I'm sure that in time Andante will understand, so just give her a bit of space for now to get used to everything. Despite how much stronger she's gotten since she first logged in, she's still a bit new to The World. There will be a lot of things she won't understand. I mean, not even Gaspard nor I understand what PKs do either."

"Yeah," Haseo sighed, "you're right." _But…I can't help but worry a bit about what just happened. Since I wasn't able to give her an answer, she might believe that I'm still…still playing this game as a PKK. _

After I had left Canard's Home, I tried continuing my task to gather information starting in the Alchemy district this time. When only a few minutes passed, I wandered back to the Chaos Gate in Mac Anu's dome empty handed. There were more areas passed between players, but from the conversations they were just areas for newbies or specific items. I didn't even bother to take note of them anymore, because my mind was still hung on that short conversation I had with Haseo back at Canard. Agitated of how I acted back there, I was going to head back to see if I could apologize when suddenly a familiar player warped in front of me by the Chaos Gate. It was Kuhn.

"Andante, fancy meeting you here," Kuhn joked greeting me. He says that because since we both work in the same area at CC Corp, it's quite strange meeting each other in The World when we're only a couple feet away from each other in real life.

"Kuhn…" I was going to return his greeting, but from the conversation with Haseo earlier I wasn't sure what to say. I was going to log out, though even if I were to leave Kuhn in the game, it would raise suspicion and he would catch up to me in real life. Perhaps instead I can talk to Kuhn about everything. Everything that has happened so far since I logged in today.

"Is something wrong, Andante?" Kuhn asked when I appeared unresponsive.

"Can we talk? I mean, if you have time…" I exclaimed in a small voice unsure of what I was about to do. Kuhn was silent for a moment and smiled.

"Sure. I don't really have much planned anyway. We should move to a quieter place though," Kuhn wondered as he looked around at other players inside the dome, "how about we head over to Canard's Ho-"

"Oh! Actually, um, I was kinda hoping we'd go to an area first. I've recently acquired some new area words. And we…we can talk when we clear the area. Is that okay?"

Kuhn wondered for a moment why I suddenly mentioned going to an area rather than just Canard's Home, but he shrugged it off thinking the reason will come later. "All right then. Since it seems like it'll just be the two of us, let's be prepared on items just in case." I had acquired enough support items for myself from the first area I went to, so I waited in the dome while Kuhn went to gather a few items himself. When he came back to the Chaos Gate I chose the area words for a level 11 field and we warped.

Shortly after we warped into a field, I was unsure of what to do first. Although this isn't my first time adventuring, I had never been to a field before. I quickly brought up the map and noticed that there was a mission to collect the symbol fragments to reach the beast temple.

"Now then, looks like the mission here is to collect the symbol fragments. Shall we go?" Kuhn spoke up and I nearly forgot he was with me.

"Uh…um, this seems embarrassing to ask, but what are symbol fragments?" It felt awkward to ask something as obvious as this. Maybe it was something I should already know before playing.

"Ha ha, it's not embarrassing at all since you're still new. Symbol fragments are simply key items that you need to collect in this field in order to remove the seal from the beast temple and be able to enter to reach the beast statue. There are a total of three in all, and you can find them in the three treasure chests indicated on the map. However, each treasure chest are surrounded by monsters, so be prepared to enter a battle," Kuhn explained. I double checked my map again and noticed the treasure chests Kuhn pointed out.

"All right, then let's get this going." I had never been in a party before with Kuhn, nor have I been in a party with Welk who's also a steam gunner. It's going to be interesting how the two of us work together. Kuhn is at a higher level than me, and while it was difficult to choose an area suitable for both of us, I didn't want to fall behind. The monsters we met up with were different from the kind I fought with Silabus and Gaspard. They were tougher, and my hp was always decreasing. Fortunately Kuhn was right beside me ready with recovery items. Even though Kuhn was already at a higher level than this area, he was happy to help me level up on my own. After we defeated the monsters, I opened up the treasure chest and sure enough a window popped up notifying me that I received a symbol fragment.

"Good, only two more to go!" Kuhn encouraged. I nodded and we started moving again. Once we collected the last symbol fragment, all three pieces combined and formed a new item called a judge's symbol.

"What's this?" I asked Kuhn.

"That's a judge's symbol. Once you collect all three symbol fragments, they form together into the judge's symbol. With that, you can reach the beast statue inside the beast temple." Sure enough when we headed to the beast temple in the middle of the field, the door that I once saw was closed was now open. We got inside and I opened up the treasure at the beast statue. It was a suitable new weapon perfect for my character.

"Hey, that's a pretty nice item you got there Andante. Congrats, it's a good reward for your hard work today," Kuhn came up and patted me on the shoulder. I suddenly fell silent remembering the initial reason for coming here.

"Kuhn…remember how earlier I asked you if we could talk?"

"Of course, and since we've already completed the mission now, what did you want to talk about?" I wasn't sure where to begin, so I just started talking from the beginning. I told him about the task Welk gave me, the Pkers I ran into, then running into Haseo, and how I ended up yelling at him later at Canard's Home. Once I was done, while it felt a little better to be able to talk everything out, the weight of guilt from remembering it all again made my heart feel heavy.

"I see…so that's what happened huh?" Kuhn exclaimed. He looked at me with kind eyes as if to reassure me of the doubts I had in my mind, but I couldn't face him for long. I could only stare at the place where the beast statue was after it had disappeared for opening the reward chest and clearing the area. Then Kuhn spoke up again, "Well, it's a good thing those PKs weren't able to pick on you even further when you ran into Haseo. I understand that you feel bad for yelling at Haseo like that. There's no need to worry though about offending him or anything. Haseo is a strong guy, both on the outside as well as the inside. I'm sure he'll understand when you apologize. And…you're a pretty strong person yourself, Andante. It may not seem like much coming from me, but trust me on this. Everyone makes a mistake at least once in their life, or heh, like me I make mistakes all the time. It's just how we handle the situations that follow after that truly matter. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yes…" something wet at that moment dripped onto the back of the palm of my hand. I noticed my eyes were filled with tears, but I was able to smile.

"Thank You, Kuhn. And thank you…Haseo."


	5. Chapter 5

**Login 5: Burden**

I couldn't bring myself to face work the next day. After returning to Mac Anu from my recent adventure with Kuhn, I had immediately logged out. My shift had ended so I decided to head home, but I worried over the fact that I didn't get my job that Welk had given me done so I quickly left before he could meet with me. Although I survived the rest of the day without being bothered, I still had to work the next day. I always check in with my supervisor, Yokuro, at CC Corp before I head to my area since he is my supervisor part of the time. What should I do?

Morning came the next day before I could bring about an answer. I managed to wake up earlier than usual, so when I prepared myself to head to work (which I was still dreading about since last night) I took a detour walking. Normally, I would call a taxi or catch a train, but this time I just started walking. Walking helps me sort out my mind from overloads of confusing events that have occurred. There was an arcade in the neighborhood, and though I'm not very fond of them I went in anyway to kill some time before work. After looking around there for a while I didn't find anything of interest. I headed outside and was wondering what to do next when I met an unexpected surprise.

"Himonoko-san?" I looked up in response to someone calling my name and finally noticed a familiar person dressed as part of the arcade staff.

"Tomonari-san?" I gasped. The worker was none other than the player behind Kuhn. I was not only surprised that I now know he works at two jobs, but that his job here is in my neighborhood. That would possibly mean he lives in the same neighborhood as me. We sat down together on one of the outside benches against the wall for a small chat. I asked him, "So you work at this arcade, Tomonari-san?"

"Yeah. The pay at CC Corp is decent, but having an extra job helps a bit on some money issues," he laughs. "Working here is also a bit more enjoyable, since it's only an arcade. But I still have to work almost as hard here as in CC Corp."

"Ah…"

"So what are you doing here?" he asked, "If I recall, you work in the late morning at CC Corp."

"Well…" I wasn't sure what to say, but I was with him yesterday in "The World" when I felt a bit down after my dispute with Haseo. That reminds me…even though I got my feelings about that sorted out I haven't seen Haseo since that time. I groaned realizing that it will be another problem I was going to have to deal with when I log into "The World".

When Tomonari saw that I wasn't saying anything, he asked, "Did something happen?"

"No…it's nothing. I was just killing a bit of time here, heh heh. Ah, I better get going. I don't want to be late again. I'll see you later in The World!" I exclaim getting up to leave. Tomonari was about to say something, but he decided against it and silently watched me leave.

When I was out of sight, he spoke out to no one in a small voice, "You shouldn't carry everything yourself…Andante."

As soon as I arrived at CC Corp I attempted to head to my work area as quickly as possible, but I ended up taking the wrong turn in the hallway while my mind was still on the matter of meeting Yokuro. I realized late I became lost, and then I ran into Yokuro himself.

"Ah, Himonoko, you're here early. But…aren't you supposed to be working in the other side?" he looked at me curiously as he pointed to the sign indicating a path in the opposite direction to where my work area was.

"Wha…whoops? Ahaha, guess I took the wrong turn! Sorry about that, I'll be going now!" I turn to leave, possibly run, from this situation. Yokuro stopped me with a hand on my shoulder before I started to move.

"Hold on a sec' Himonoko, I need to talk to you about something."

"Y-Yeah, w-what is it?" I gulped knowing exactly what he could possibly mean and knew I was in big trouble for it. Though what he said next totally brought me to surprise.

"I heard about an area in The World yesterday that was reported by some players to have seen a type of bug there. If it's not too much of a bother, can you go investigate it with Kuhn for me? I'm heading over to another area to investigate a different mission. Is that okay?"

"Sure! No problem, Kuhn and I will handle it!" I replied in a tight, high-pitched voice. Yokuro just laughed as he told me the area words and we split ways from there. I was a bit disappointed that he never mentioned anything about yesterday's assignment. Did he forget about it completely? "He could have scolded me even a little bit," I sighed as I made my way to my usual desk. I sorted out some papers that were dropped off on my desk and read up on the latest news articles on the web. Despite I mostly spend my hours playing The World at CC Corp, there are often times where I merely manage or read up on some information that could seem meaningless to anyone but critical to a company such as CC Corp. Once I finished up today's usual paperwork, I pulled out my M2D and my laptop preparing to log in to The World.

As usual, I log in with my PC Andante and arrive at the Chaos Gate in the dome of Mac Anu. Other PCs were there, conducting regular business with each other or running out and about using the Chaos Gate. Kuhn wasn't online yet, so I decided to kill some time around town while waiting for him. While I did want to head over to Canard's Home to check on Silabus and Gaspard, I wasn't decisive on if I wanted to see Haseo yet. I headed towards the central district instead and planned to find a spot to stand to the side while waiting for Kuhn. But my plans were about to change when I passed by a guild shop I forgot was there.

"Andante!" I turned and noticed Gaspard for the first time since entering the central district. _Oh right, our guild shop is here huh?_ Silabus once explained to me that each guild could run a guild shop. And guild shops were hosted in the central district while NPC shops run by NPCs, or Non-Player Characters, were located in the Mercenary district. Canard's guild shop is called Shop Acorn.

"Hey Gaspard," I greeted but giving sort of a forced smile. _Geez, why am I feeling tense? It's only Gaspard; I can handle this. _"So…you're running the guild shop, huh?"

"Yeah! And we're doing some great business too! Do you have any items that you want to see that we can restock the store with?" I quickly checked my items, but despite not going to many areas yet I didn't have much. But I didn't want to feel guilty later, so I handed Gaspard some newbie items that I could live without. "Great, more items! Thank you for your help, Andante. Haseo can probably bring some more items later. He might even come by here soon!" I felt a cold shiver through my body at the mention of Haseo.

When Gaspard asked me if I wanted to wait here with him for Haseo, I quickly shook my head. "I…uh…have some important business to take care of. Sorry, m-maybe some other time," I lied. I didn't know whether or not I had to rush on my investigation, but Kuhn wasn't online yet. Which reminded me to say, "Oh! And if you see Kuhn, can you tell him to come find me? I'll be waiting for him at the Harbor."

"Okay…" Gaspard answered but looked at me curiously due to me sudden change in the conversation. I quickly waved goodbye and took off to the Harbor. It didn't take long using the green warp point by the Quest shop, and in the next minute I was sitting at the edge of the main dock staring at the eternal sunset in the horizon. Despite it served as only part of the town's background in a game, it looked real that I felt like I could reach out and touch the eternal setting sun. It must be pretty hot that it would burn my hand though.

After waiting a few minutes Kuhn finally showed up. I quickly stood up to greet him. He smiled, but his expression turned to worry. "Gaspard said you were looking for me. Is there a problem?" I knew he must have been referring to the earlier conversation in the real world. But I quickly shook my head. I didn't want to waste time on my own troubles when there was a job to be done.

"Welk gave me some area words that were reported to have been affected by a bug and wants me to investigate. Since it's my first job to investigate an area with a bug, I thought I might invite you along in case I need any help."

"Oh, okay. That's fine then. Say…can I ask you something before we get going?"

"Hmm? What is it?"

"Do you mind if Haseo comes with us to investigate the area?" My controller in my hands almost slipped and fall to the floor, but I caught it just in time before it would make any sudden noises, although I froze in my retrieval position for a few seconds before I was able to respond back.

"Er…uh…sure, I don't mind at all!" I exclaimed thought I wasn't sure if I believed my own words, let alone Kuhn's. So I asked, "But why Haseo?" Clearly the area we're going to investigate has some type of bug infection. It could be dangerous for players like us, but it could be even more dangerous for a normal player like Haseo. However…was there ever a time when I've heard of or seen Haseo as a normal player? I still didn't know too much about him.

"It's sort of a long story. Maybe he'll tell you about it during our task." Kuhn suddenly paused for a moment, I assume, to check on something. He quickly got back to me, "Sorry about that. I just received a short mail from Haseo. He says he's currently by the Chaos Gate. Shall we meet him there?"

"Sure," I answered in a small voice. I felt so unsure about what was about to happen, but I couldn't let everything that's pulling me down right now stick onto me forever. These things will have to be dealt with head on sooner or later.

Kuhn paused for another moment to reply back to Haseo's message. Then the two of us headed to the closest warp point to the familiar dome that Haseo was inside waiting for us. Once we got inside I fell back a few steps as if I was taking all the time in the world to walk slowly to the Chaos Gate. When I finally caught up with Kuhn, I noticed for the first time that Haseo's back was facing us while the front of his PC was staring intently at the spinning blue gate that would make someone in real life feel dizzy. However, in this game players would only glance at it for a moment before warping out to a different area.

I was about to say something to break the uncomfortable silence that was rising around us when Haseo spoke quickly and quietly I strained a little to hear, "Let's get on and done with this bug quickly." He wordlessly invited Kuhn and I to form a party. I silently glanced at Kuhn for an explanation to Haseo's behavior, but he merely shrugged signaling that he was confused as much as I was. _I wonder…if he's mad about the other day, _I wondered to myself.

"….area words…"

"Huh?" I exclaimed snapping out of my own thoughts. Haseo no longer had his back towards us, and was staring firmly at me. It looked like he was expecting an answer, but I couldn't remember what he said.

"What are the area words for our task?" he asked but with more volume it was almost like he was shouting. I was shocked by his sudden anger I was left speechless. Just what was going on here? Why is Haseo acting like this?

"Haseo…" Kuhn tried to intercede, but was only ignored. Only Haseo and I were standing a few steps apart staring at each other eye to eye.

"Delta…Erasing…Heart's…Passion…" I muttered automatically like a machine and softly like a curse. Haseo turned his back to us once more and we warped without another word.

-Delta Erasing Heart's Passion-

The area we warped into was a dungeon themed as a type of shrine. Background music played normally in the background, but it did not ease my wavering heart. I didn't have a chance to see what the level of this area was before we warped and when I finally did I saw it was higher than both Kuhn's level and mine. _Was Welk aware of this level of the area before he gave me the words? _I had no time to think any further about the level. I knew it was going to be difficult, but I couldn't back out now. Haseo's level seemed to have matched with the area's level. Although Kuhn and I will be doing our best to keep up with this level, Haseo will be doing most of the support.

"All right, the mission here is to investigate a reported bug in this area. It should be somewhere deep in this dungeon. Let's be careful and take care of this task quickly," Kuhn informed both us. I silently nodded and Haseo did the same, moving forward taking the lead as Kuhn and I swiftly followed. I had stocked my item inventory before I had met up with Kuhn in the harbor back at Mac Anu, but I was still worried about this area's level. I had to be careful to not fall behind.

We quickly spotted our first enemies a few minutes later in exploring the dungeons. Two large orange shelled crabs and what looked like a steam motorbike monster. I pulled out my latest sword I had acquired recently from the last area I visited and prepared myself to launch a surprise attack. Before I could blink, Haseo was up at the enemies in a nanosecond with his two twin blades and immediately wiped one of them out. Kuhn, not nearly as high leveled as Haseo but higher than me, wiped out another. There was one left, the steam motorbike, and it was right in front and closest to me.

"Okay! This one's mine!" I grinned clutching my sword and launched an attack. Its HP didn't go down by much, but I continued attacking. I tried using a skill that I learned when I learned the battle basics with Silabus and Gaspard. It's HP only decreased by twice the amount of the previous blow. Distracted on its HP, the motorbike monster used a skill on my knocking me backwards. A large amount of my own HP decreased dramatically._ Darn it, I should have leveled up a bit before I came here, _I grimaced.

"Haaaa!" While I tried to regain my PC's balance, Haseo had moved forward and finished off the monster with his own skill move. It gave a low-pitched moan and crumbled to the ground. The battle was over.

"It's over…" I whispered too low for anyone to hear. But despite the volume it still appeared on my screen in text, though neither Haseo nor Kuhn showed any response to my words.

"Let's keep going," Haseo announced. He immediately started taking the lead again. His impatience is starting to rub off and on to me. I suddenly felt like I wanted to run past him, to outrun him. I too felt like I wanted to get this investigation over with as soon as possible. Still, I took longer than necessary to move my PC's character.

Kuhn was still silent after the battle, but he quickly used a healing item to recover some of the HP that I had lost in battle. I looked at him curiously, since I could have used one of my own items. Kuhn shook his head and gave a small smile back before we had to move on. I stiffly nodded and together we hurried to catch up with Haseo. The next couple of battles were dealt with in the same manner. Haseo landed heavy blows on the enemies in seconds, while Kuhn and I could only hit a few damage points. My experience points were steadily increasing due to the dungeon's level, but it didn't feel like I was getting much experience at all. More like…I was just there as an extra party member, even though I was the one who brought up the area words that Welk had given to me. I suddenly remembered, _it was originally supposed to only be Kuhn and I investigating this area! Haseo was just brought in because Kuhn suggested it. But what exactly is the reason for Haseo coming with us? He's just a regular player…isn't he?_

After two floors of constant battling and my own worried thoughts being juggled in my head, Haseo and Kuhn shortly stopped in an empty room with neither monsters nor treasure chests (that Haseo quickly opened but never spoke a word of what was inside). I stopped behind them two and looked around to see what they were seeing. A couple feet ahead, black specs appeared on the display of my M2D hovering in the air. The same exact black specs that I had encountered on my first adventure in The World.

"AIDA…." Kuhn whispered. He looked quickly at Haseo and said, "There it is Haseo! Be careful!"

"So it's finally here," Haseo grinned, "All right, I'll take it on in one-"

"Wait!" I cried. Both of them stopped and turned to look at me with confused expressions. I kept my eyes on the black specs Kuhn referred to as AIDA. "Let me handle this battle…alone."

"Huh? What are you talking about?" Haseo exclaimed. I pulled out my sword and pointed it at AIDA.

"I'm going to defeat this bug with my own sword!" I announced. Haseo and Kuhn couldn't believe what I was saying. Neither could I. But all this time we've spent in this dungeon since we've first warped in the most I could do was scratch the enemies with minimal damage. I was fed up, and I wanted to prove I could be useful. I didn't want to be a burden.

"Are you stupid?" Haseo interrupted me that I stepped back in surprise. "Your level isn't even close to match up with it. You don't even know what it is! If you go rushing at it, you'll get killed! No…" Haseo's voice suddenly turned from anger to a grim shock, "you'll…"

"Haseo!" Kuhn yelled over both of us, "It's coming!" Haseo was distracted, but I already made up my mind. I forcefully pushed past Haseo gripping my blade and ran head forward at the black specs.

"Here I come!" I lifted my sword to perform a skill. Only Haseo's cry that was a last resort to stop me made me stop midway.

"It's not even a regular monster, you idiot! You'll end up in a coma!" Haseo stopped his voice and his PC blazed a red color around him. Red and orange light formed a ring around him, as well as an unfamiliar design on his PC. But this unfamiliar design immediately looked familiar to me. Back when I first met the black specs on my first adventure.

"SKEEEIIIITTH!"


	6. Chapter 6

**Login 6: Holiday**

The whole scene unfolding around us felt like another nightmare. I couldn't make heads or tails of what exactly was going on here. I could still see Kuhn a few feet away, moving his lips as if he was talking to someone. But there wasn't anything else besides us so it seemed odd. Then I remembered something I almost missed. What happened to Haseo and the bug we encountered Kuhn had identified as AIDA? I hastily looked all around me, only to see nothing. The shrine themed dungeon we were in during our investigation on a reported bug was replaced by an empty field of hexagons and streams of data and light. Listening in more closely, I heard Haseo's voice, his volume increasing every few seconds. He sounded like he was fighting, but where?

"Haseo!" I called out with my PC. I didn't get much of a response. I knew Haseo was somewhere around here fighting alone. Perhaps fighting the AIDA we encountered. I vaguely heard Kuhn attempting to call out to me, but amidst my own confusion I couldn't concentrate on hearing. I tried running around for a bit, but the field of glowing hexagons seemed endless I wasn't sure I was moving anywhere at all.

Then, an accident occurred that made me realize what was happening. In the next second Haseo's voice suddenly changed into a cry of pain and gasp of fear. I looked up and noticed for the first time the black spots I saw in the dungeon with Haseo and Kuhn. They were falling at high velocity from the top of the M2D vision screen to the floor. When it hit the ground the black spots scattered and disappeared. Haseo cursed and wondered where did it go. The answer wasn't far from his question.

During our confusion of the sudden appearance of the black spots, they had reformed in a massive swarm and circled around my PC. AIDA had hidden and appeared, circling in on me like a predator on its prey. Again, it increased its velocity as it drew nearer to me, but the event felt like it was replaying in slow motion. Replaying what had happened to me at the first area I explored in "The World"; perhaps a bit like déjà vu. AIDA hit Andante's foot first and slowly bubbled up her legs. My controller actions were useless, and I couldn't even scream. Quickly, my eyes managed to gaze over to Kuhn, where his PC's expression was grave. He looked at me for a second and then looked up.

"Haseo," he spoke. Even though I couldn't see Haseo, I was now sure Kuhn could. "You've got to do it…"

"What?" Haseo gasped again. I wondered too, _do…do what?_

"We've still got a chance. AIDA is busy and its guard is temporarily let down. If you hurry, you can still save her!" Kuhn yelled. Haseo was quiet for a moment, thinking about the current situation.

"Yeah…I know," he muttered softly. A loud whirring sound was beginning to increase in volume that I've never heard before. Haseo whispered at last, "Andante…I'm sorry."

The noise exploded like a gun and my PC's appearance shook violently as colors and light mixed and inverted in with each other. I let out a small cry, and AIDA that had touched most of PC's body fell apart and was wiped out. Along with my consciousness.

My controller immediately dropped from the weak grasp of my hands and clattered onto the floor. For the second time in my life during my playing in the online game of "The World", my consciousness had fallen into darkness. This time, however, the darkness felt longer than my previous encounter with AIDA. I couldn't move any part of my body, let alone speak. I couldn't tell if I was still in "The World" or offline in the real world. I wasn't even sure if I was breathing.

Luckily, I managed once again to regain my consciousness. When I slightly felt it coming back again, I felt someone calling me. Not by my PC name, but by my real name.

"Rai! Can you hear me! Wake up!" At first I thought it was a fellow college roommate attempting to get me up on a weekday after I spent a weekend pulling all-nighters. I tried ignoring it as if I wanted to sleep a bit more. But the voice sounded a little different; it sounded older. Still, I could barely feel myself breathing; it was hard to utter even a sound. My vision was still blacked out so I couldn't tell what was around me. There were other voices too mumbling and muttering all in different pitches and different speed. The one closest to me was the only one I could catch every word when they spoke.

"Come on! Open your eyes…please…" the voice was getting softer, but a hand slipped into one of mine and squeezed hard. It felt warm, and then I began to feel my hand twitch inside of theirs. Slowly I opened my eyes to see two slightly watery eyes peering down at me. I had to take more time and effort than necessary to lift up my gaze and recognize the person was Tomonari Kasumi. I was back in the real world.

In the next moment Tomonari began speaking softly to other people around us who have gathered in my guess due to a sudden commotion. After they had left one by one till we were alone, he carefully picked me up and carried me out of my work area to one of the lounge areas at CC Corp. I didn't even protest at his action since my body was still numb from the shock of losing my consciousness. He laid me down on one of the lounge chairs and told me he was going to fetch me some water. As he got up to leave for a moment, a single tear fell from one of his eyes and landed softly on the edge of the cushion. We both noticed it and he quickly turned away to wipe his eyes, giving a small chuckle of laughter as a cover-up. When he left, I took the time to myself to attempt to recollect what had happened the past few moments.

I had been in a dungeon with Kuhn and Haseo to investigate a bug…

The bug was the same bug I saw during my first login into "The World"…

That bug seen as black spots was, I now knew, identified as AIDA…

During our time there I wanted to prove I was strong enough to be useful to my team…

So I tried to strike AIDA first…

But…but then…Haseo…

Tomonari had returned shortly after. In his hands was a small cup of water. I struggled to sit up, but when I did I nearly fell off the chair that Tomonari had to catch me. He helped me sit up and handed me the water. After I took my time gulping down the cold liquid that softened my rough throat being partially sore from my wavering consciousness, he finally spoke.

"So…how are you feeling?" he asked pulling up a chair beside me. I was going to say I was fine, but I couldn't say anything. My body was still feeling affected from shock. However, it didn't feel like it was shock that made my body feel unstable. When I couldn't speak I just nodded my head slowly. Even that, though, caused some slight dizziness in my head. Tomonari was about to say something else, but suddenly a loud ring tone went off in his pocket he jumped out of his seat. "Sorry," he gave a small laugh and quickly turned around to check it. "Hello?" he whispered in a quiet voice. "Oh…yes, she's here. No, she's alright now, but barely," he added in a quieter voice. "I'm having her rest in the south lounge area on the first floor. Okay, bye."

He quickly hanged up and walked back to the chair he pulled out. I gave him a questioning look wondering whom he was speaking to on the phone. He answered my question in the next moment, "I just spoke to Yokuro-san. He heard about your condition from overhearing a conversation between two other workers on his floor and was worried. We've exchanged phone numbers the other day so he quickly called me since you and I work in the same area." I nodded in understanding and quickly looked around for a nearby clock. I spotted one to my right and noticed it was already past 9. My body began feeling sluggish again and I felt my eyelids dropping every few seconds. I tried shaking my head to keep me awake. Tomonari noticed my actions and also gave a glance at the clock.

"I think it's time we take her home," a voice called out from behind us. We both turned in unison to see Yokuro appear with my bag, which I guessed, also carried my laptop and game equipment. Tomonari gave a silent nod and turned back to me holding out his hand. I take it and attempt to stand up on my own again. I managed that, but still had to lean on Tomonari for support. We wordlessly made our way through the quiet and dim lighted halls of CC Corp to the employee parking lot where Yokuro signaled a small car parked in one of the spaces. He opened one of the backseat doors for Tomonari to help me in and then slide in himself. Yokuro entered the driver's seat, started the car, and drove out into the city streets.

I tried to stay awake the whole time as I listened to Tomonari and Yokuro speaking softly between one another. My eyes wouldn't allow it, and in seconds everything around me turned pitch-black as I fell into a deep slumber.

I had a dreamless sleep and amazingly woke up earlier than normal. I was in my apartment again, tucked in my futon mattress with my quilt. It was morning, with the sun barely up beginning to rise. I slowly rose up into a seating position and looked around, only to see my usual empty and messy apartment. I rubbed my head for a moment thinking about what had happened the last few hours. It came back to me after I noticed my messenger bag was in front of me.

"That's right…yesterday…" I suddenly stopped and felt a rush of surprise. My voice was back, and my body no longer felt ill from yesterday's events. I sighed in relief that my body was well again, but my heart nearly jumped when the doorbell rang. I quickly got up and hurried to open the door. Tomonari was there and smiled at me.

"Yo, Himonoko-san! It looks like you're feeling better now," he laughed.

"Aha, much better," I join in, "everything that happened before now feels like a mere dream." Tomonari had brought some breakfast over from the neighborhood supermarket. I invited him in as I quickly changed my clothes that I was still in from yesterday and also prepared some tea. We both sat down at the small kitchen table I had cleared off the previous items of and pulled together two chairs. It seemed rather odd having Tomonari, who's also Kuhn in "The World", sitting in my apartment. But I quickly shrugged it off. _We're both co-workers and now friends in The World, so it should be fine, _I thought.

As we both begin to open up the store meals, he begins telling me what had happened since the time the two of us were logged in The World. "When AIDA, the bug we encountered at Delta Erasing Heart's Passion, had infected on you-or rather you're PC Andante, I knew there was only one thing left to do. While AIDA was attached to your PC, it was mainly focused on that rather than moving or running away. Even though it was bad that it had infected your PC, it was an open chance to destroy it."

I recalled at that moment what Tomonari, or Kuhn at that moment, had said. _Haseo…you've got to do it…we've still got a chance. AIDA is busy and its guard is temporarily let down. If you hurry, you can still save her! _Then…there was that loud whirring sound. "What…exactly did Haseo do?" I asked.

Tomonari thought to himself for a moment, carefully thinking about what to say. Finally, he said, "He performed a Data Drain."

"Data Drain?"

"Yes…it's a special ability to use against AIDA." He paused again and mentioned, "Both of us have the day off today from our job at CC Corp, and I also have the day off from my part-time job at the arcade. I guess it's time I finally tell you about the abnormality in The World known as AIDA."

"AIDA…" I whisper as I munch on one of the sandwiches from the store.

Tomonari nods and continues, "At the moment, I, or rather, CC Corp knows of its existence. However, we really don't know much about it, even though we've been investigating it for a while now."

"But it's just a bug right? CC Corp should be able to fix it," I automatically say. But if it was a normal bug, how can it cause someone like me to lose consciousness for a moment? Haseo also had mentioned something about going against AIDA, though from yesterday's shock I couldn't remember.

"If it was that way, it'd be easier on all of us who knows or perhaps doesn't know of its existence. It is identified as a bug, however it's not like any normal bug CC Corp deals with. It's…more dangerous than that," Tomonari's voice turns grim. I assumed he must have been recalling what happened yesterday.

I decided to finally ask, "What…happened to me after Haseo performed the Data Drain? In the real world…"

It didn't take long for Tomonari to remember, but his body seemed to have shivered with a chill even though it was nearly Summer outside. "After Haseo had performed the Data Drain on you we returned to the normal dungeon. Haseo and I came beside you immediately where your PC was lying unconscious on the ground." Tomonari stopped and replayed in his mind what exactly had happened.

Back in the dungeon at Delta Erasing Heart's Passion after AIDA had been taken care of, Andante fell to the ground with a soft thud. Haseo and Kuhn came running over.

"Andante! Hey, Andante!" Haseo called out, "Come one! Pull yourself together. Can you hear me?" No response came. "Damn, why is this happening?" Haseo threw a fist to the ground beside my PC Andante.

Kuhn, who had remained silent as Haseo attempted to call me finally exclaimed, "Haseo, I'm going to check on her in the real world."

"The real world?" Haseo questioned. "You mean…you know the player behind Andante?"

"Yes. The player behind Andante is a part-timer like me at CC Corp. She isn't too far from where I am. I'll be quick."

"Alright," Haseo relaxed a bit. "But what if she's-" Kuhn knew what he was going to bring up and stopped him there.

"Don't worry, I'm sure she's fine. But in case she's not in a good condition to come back in, Andante and I will be logging out. Sorry Haseo, but you'll need to continue on your own. The AIDA in this dungeon is all gone, so you can just finish up whatever you need to do and head back to town. I'll contact you later."

"Got it. I hope Andante, or, her player is alright," Haseo whispered.

"Leave it to me," Kuhn assured him putting a hand on his shoulder. Haseo then left to move forward in the dungeon while Kuhn left his PC for a moment to check on me in the real world."

"Haseo was freaked out," Tomonari sighed as he continued telling me the events that happened, "because…well that's another story. Anyway, when I left my PC I immediately headed over to your workstation. Other employees were mostly on break, so they didn't notice you until later. At your desk…you were also unconscious just like you were in the game. Your controller was on the ground, but your M2D was still attached to your eyes. I took them off to see them shut and at that point was trying to wake you up. You can probably remember what happened after that." Tomonari gave another sigh, though he must have felt relieved for getting the explanation out of his head.

"I see. I must have caused you, Haseo, and…Yokuro-san so much trouble," I kind of laughed.

"OH!" Tomonari suddenly exclaimed, "No, it wasn't any trouble at all. We're all just glad your okay now." I looked down at the table for a moment and felt a tear welling up in my eyes. Then, it became more than one tear until I found myself silently crying. Tomonari, seeing this, felt panicked. "Whoa, what's wrong Rai? Did I say something wrong? Why are you crying?" He quickly searched around for a tissue, cursing under his breath for not having a spare handkerchief in his pocket, finally just handing me one of the napkins on the table. I tried using it to wipe the tears, but more kept flowing out. It's been a long time since I displayed that much emotion.

"I-I'm sorry," I managed to blubber through my tears, "I-It's just that from talking so much about everyone and The World, I feel like I miss them all. Silabus..Gaspard…H-Haseo. They all must…be worried about me. And there's still so m-much I want to do. I want to go on more adventures with Silabus, help out at the guild shop with Gaspard, and learn more about…Haseo." I quieted down a bit to where I was able to wipe away all the tears. When I looked up, Tomonari was smiling softly at me.

"We'll put this discussion about AIDA to rest for now. You seem to be feeling much better, so let's both go back and see everyone again in The World. I'm sure they'll be happy to see you again…Andante," he laughed calling me by my name in The World.

"Mmm!" I nodded feeling relieved.


	7. Chapter 7

**Login 7: The New beginning and The New End**

We planned to log in from my apartment, so Tomonari had to take a temporary leave to retrieve his game equipment from his place. He still was feeling a bit uneasy about the AIDA incident, so he insisted logging in with me over at my place. Once we were ready, together we logged into the world.

**-Eternal City Mac Anu-**

Our PCs warped inside the dome by the Chaos Gate. As soon as we did, I gave a long sigh in relief. Kuhn, in the game but possibly also in real life, looked at me curiously. I smiled and said, "Even though we were here only yesterday, it feels like it's been ages since I've logged in. It feels good to be back to this familiar place."

Kuhn laughs, "Yes, it does feel like it's been awhile. When you come across abnormal events, it feels a little strange to come back to the normal settings of The World." Kuhn paused for a moment to check on something. "It looks like Silabus, Gaspard, and Haseo are all online right now. Shall we pay them a visit at Canard's Home?"

"Sure," I agreed, "but let's pass through the Central District. Gaspard might be at the guild shop." We moved outside and walked to the fountain area where the Central District and the guild shops are located. When we got there, I didn't see Gaspard nor Silabus or Haseo around. "They're not here?" I wondered.

"They might already be at the Home. Let's take the shortcut and head on over." Kuhn points over to the green warping device behind us. We used it to quickly warp over to the mercenary district. But when we reached the door to the Home, I couldn't use the Canard Key Gaspard had given me when I first joined the guild.

"What's going on?" I tell Kuhn that I couldn't access the guild. He starts to think something odd is going on and says he'll try sending a short mail to Silabus. I wait patiently as he prepares to send it and wait for a reply. It doesn't take long for him to come back, and when he does he's laughing. "What's wrong?" I ask in confusion.

"Oh," Kuhn chuckled trying to compose himself, "it's nothing to worry about. Have you checked your email recently?" I thought for a moment to remember, and made a motion in the real world slapping a hand to my forehead, which nearly knocks off my M2D. Tomonari, in the real world, laughs at this.

"Shoot, I forgot. Among all of the commotion happening recently, I haven't checked it since the time I first logged out of The World. Was there something I missed?"

"Hmm, I would advise you to check it yourself right now, though I think it'll be okay if I just explained it for now. A new server opened up in The World, along with a new root town. You know how Mac Anu is the root town for the Delta Server?" I nodded and he continues, "The Theta Server that just opened up has a root town called Dol Dona, a town similar to Mac Anu. There's also a previous server that opened up before it, the Omega Server, with the root town Lumina Cloth. I'll explain about that server later, but going back to Dol Dona…"

"Wait," I interrupted him for a minute, "there was another server that was existing besides Mac Anu? I didn't hear anything about that!" I was beginning to feel agitated for my recent lack of knowledge on The World.

Kuhn gives a little shrug, "You mentioned earlier you haven't been checking your emails recently, right? CC Corp would've sent you a notification about it via email. And if not, Silabus or Gaspard would've told you about it." I tried thinking back to all the times I've spent in The World. Though each memory was significant in one way or another, I haven't really spent as much time playing as Andante as I hoped.

"This is…unbelievable. Of all the times I have logged into The World, I-" but Kuhn quieted me down.

"Hey, it's not that big of a deal. We all can't commit all of our time to The World."

"But…even I'm a worker at CC Corp…"

"You're still new, so there's still room for improvement," Kuhn assures me. I nod, remembering what I had decided when Andante was born into The World. _Take things slow, one step at a time. _"Anyway," Kuhn continues from our earlier discussion about the Theta Server, "the reason why you can't access Canard here is because the Home has been moved."

"Huh? Moved?"

"Yes. I could explain it to you, but I think it's best to head over to the new Home located in Dol Dona of the Theta Server. You can warp to Dol Dona by using the Chaos Gate functions to change servers." Kuhn leads me back to the Chaos Gate and showed me how to change servers. I now noticed when he opened up the server menu that there were three servers to choose from. Delta, the server we currently were in now; Omega, for Lumina Cloth; and finally Theta, for Dol Dona. We warped from there and in a moment appeared in a completely new town.

**-Celestial City Dol Dona-**

Unlike Mac Anu, the Chaos Gate was located out in the open instead of inside a dome. In front of us was a huge gate that players would appear and disappear around it. It must've been the door leading to the rest of the town. The town's map indicated that this town was smaller than Mac Anu. Instead of being separated in different districts, Dol Dona only had the Chaos Gate, town shops, and the Home where Canard must be.

"I just sent another short mail to Silabus telling him we're heading over to the Home," Kuhn informed me shortly after we had warped in, "shall we get going?"

"Right." We both walked away from the Chaos Gate to the door leading to the rest of the town. In Dol Dona, guild shops and NPC shops are located in the same area instead of different districts. As I was scanning the area around, a familiar voice called out to me.

"Andante!" I shifted my gaze over to my left and saw a familiar beast PC standing behind one of the guild shops. Gaspard was waving over to us at my guess Canard's new guild shop.

"Gaspard," I smiled and waved. Kuhn and I headed over to Canard's guild shop where he was standing. "So the guild shop is here now huh?"

"Yup! I heard from Silabus you didn't know Canard had recently moved. Sorry…"

"Eh? Why are you apologizing? I-I was the one who was careless…and didn't know…"

"Are Silabus and Haseo at the Home right now?" Kuhn asked.

"Yeah, and they're both waiting for Andante to come, so you better hurry."

"Okay then! Let's head over to the Home. It isn't too hard to find, since this town mainly only has one path and it's indicated on the map." We waved goodbye to Gaspard and finally made our way to the Canard. This time, when I used the Canard Key, we were immediately transferred in. My eyes widened when we arrived with surprise. Canard was no longer a small guild I once saw in Mac Anu. It had grown 10 times larger, with much more decoration and lights. It was like our very own mansion. As we entered, Silabus and Haseo looked up from their conversation.

"Andante! Long time no see," Silabus greeted. I couldn't help but smile when I have now seen Silabus and Gaspard are doing just fine.

"It looks like your doing well," Haseo also greeted me.

"Yes!" I brightened, "It seems that I, uh, really seemed to have missed a lot." We all exchanged smiles again. Then Kuhn suddenly coughed and spoke up.

"Now that Andante's back with you guys, I think it's time I head out on my own. I've got an errand to do myself, and though I'd love to stick around I should probably get this errand done first, heh heh." We all looked curiously at Kuhn.

"I hope it's not your illness again," Haseo exclaimed with a sarcastic tone.

"Illness?" I asked. Kuhn's face was turning a little pink both in the game and in the real world when I slipped off my M2D for a moment.

"N-No, of course not," Kuhn laughed weakly, "honest! I just received a short mail from Pi. Anyway, I got to go, see you later!" And with that Kuhn suddenly ran out of the Home. It seemed pretty strange for his PC to run out when the real player was still sitting in front of me. I still slipped off my M2D again for a moment to see if he planned to run out for real. But Tomonari was still sitting across from me where he always was, although his face looked a bit embarrassed.

Turning my attention back to Haseo and Silabus, I was about to ask them about Kuhn's so-called "illness", though quickly erased the thought. Even though the PC Kuhn was no longer around us, the real Kuhn was still near me. I had to be a bit careful about my words. I think he also thought the same thing. I wanted to ask him about what his illness was, and also who this Pi was also. But like Silabus had mentioned before in Haseo's case, I shouldn't get to nosy about other people's schedule, even if we should know each other pretty well by now. I'm just going to have to be patient until Kuhn, or Tomonari, tells me himself. So instead I asked, "So what's this about Canard's Home change?"

"Oh, I guess we haven't explained it to you yet," Silabus remembered, "Haseo, why don't you explain it to her?"

Haseo, who at first wasn't paying much mind to the conversation, suddenly stuttered, "Huh? Why me? You know it as well as I do."

"But you've had most of the experience. I've only managed to give a little support. Plus, you're our guild master Haseo. Consider it as part of your duty, because you know Canard is here for-"

"Yeah yeah, I know. Canard is here to support newbie players of the world," Haseo reminded himself with a sigh.

"How about this then," Silabus offered silently noticing Haseo's irritated mood, "I'll start off, and as I go through the explanation you can help us with all the details. Sounds good?" Haseo merely nodded, surely wanting to get this over with. He knew however it'd probably take a while because they want to explain it carefully so that I would understand it easily. So I had to do my best to understand every word they say, otherwise making their explanation wasted.

"Now that you know that there are now three servers open in The World, you know how there's the omega server?"

"Yeah," I remembered when Kuhn was showing me the server change back at Mac Anu's Chaos Gate, "I've heard the root town for that server is called Lumina Cloth."

"Well, Lumina Cloth is a special town unlike Mac Anu or Dol Dona. It serves as the arena."

"Arena?" I asked.

"The arena is a place where players can fight against players under certain rules. It seems like its PKing, since majority of those who favor the arena are PKers due to the high competition of one's own individual strength, but it's different," Haseo cut it, "CC Corp allows the arena to be a place where players can get a new challenge while keeping The World safe and stable. Of course, not all intentions come out good. In the end, power over one another is what matters at the arena." Haseo quietly made a motion to himself forming a tight fist in one of his hands.

Silabus continued, "In the arena, there are three different tournaments that open up for players to compete in. The prize is huge, but the title won in the tournament is bigger. You see, each tournament has what everybody calls an emperor. The emperor is the highest skilled player in each tournament, and there are a total of three in all. Haseo here entered the demon palace tournament even though it was his first time and conquered the tournament by overcoming a PC named Endrance, the previous demon palace emperor."

"I-I wasn't alone though," Haseo muttered, "You and Atoli helped me out."

"Oh, but you were the one who did most of the support Haseo, and I didn't even get to help you against Bourdeax." The two of them started rambling on about who helped each other the most. It made me laugh a little, seeing how these two get along so well despite their bickering.

"Anyway, thanks to Haseo winning the tournament, Canard got a huge bonus by being able to move to a larger Home as you can see. He's also now the demon palace emperor," Silabus finished up.

"Wow," I looked at Haseo with awe, "congratulations. It's a shame I missed the whole thing."

"Don't worry about it. It wasn't anything worth seeing. The arena is just for showing off your own skills, and I rarely have any interest in that." Haseo almost sounded a bit uncomfortable with the topic of the arena. Maybe he didn't enjoy all of the attention he's getting.

"Since we're now done explaining about the arena to Andante, how about the three of us go out to an area? I'm sure Andante's been wanting to get out and explore more of The World."

"Yeah, that sounds great. I've probably gotten a little rusty on my battling since the last time I logged in," I answered. And Haseo seemed to be in a better mood today, so everything should be fine. We formed a party together in the Home and outside used the green warp device to immediately transfer over to the Chaos Gate. As we were letting Haseo choose the area words, I entered a private chat with Silabus.

"So has the arena been pretty much the only thing you guys have been up to?"

"Well, it's mostly Haseo who's been working in the arena. I've only managed to give him a little support, and had to drop out in some of the battles."

"Huh? Why's that? Did Haseo kick you out?"

"No no, it's nothing like that!" Silabus quickly told me, "there was just a little incident that happened before and…" Silabus looked kind of down all of a sudden and I felt bad for suddenly talking about it. I was about to tell him to forget about it, but the transfer kicked in and our conversation was cut short.

**-Theta Falling Girl Illusion-**

The area we warped into looked similar to the place I was in during my last log-in. It was the same kind of shrine dungeon, but the level of the dungeon is a little higher than last time.

"This area's going to get a bit rougher than the last area we were in," Haseo informed me before we started, "so be on your guard. Silabus and I will be doing all we can to support you in the battles." I froze in silence and stared surprised at Haseo. He suddenly got uncomfortable being stared at and muttered, "What? Is something wrong? If the area is too hard for you to handle we can pick a different one. I just thought you'd want to try a challenge since your levels aren't that high-"

"Ahaha," I stared giggling and then it burst into laughter. Haseo and Silabus were now both looking at me with surprise. "S-Sorry," I let out trying to compose myself, "It just strikes me odd how nice Haseo is to me all of a sudden. I didn't know he'd be willing to do this much for me."

Silabus joined in giggling as well and Haseo became even more uncomfortable. "T-This is just to make up for the other day! Anyway, if you're fine now, let's move on!" Haseo started walking, grumbling on the way.

"Wait up!" both Silabus and I call after him. We caught up to him in time just as he was about to go up to the first enemy. We pulled out our weapons and began to attack. I hadn't really upgraded much of my equipment, so my stats weren't nearly so high to do any major damage. But in a quick thinking strategy I distract the monsters mid-battle whenever Silabus or Haseo needed heal on HP or SP. My feeling of being a burden has long ago lifted, and I was able to be as much help as I can.

I had gained quite a few levels by the time we reached the final floor. When we were sure that we had gone through all of the monsters we headed over to the beast statue. There in front of it was the dungeon's reward. Haseo opened it and smiled. Before Silabus or I could ask what it was, Haseo turned to me and used the gift function. A pop up showed on my screen alerting I had received an item. It was a higher-level armor, but thanks to the levels I gained I was able to equip it. Once I did, my stats increased dramatically.

"Haseo, this is…"

"You're reward for coming with us. I'm sure Silabus doesn't mind if I give this one to you. It can help your PC's stats in battle," Haseo said giving a small wink to Silabus who smiled back.

"Of course I don't mind! It's all right to give it to Andante, she deserves it!"

"Y-You…you guys are giving me too much credit!" I countered. But I was happy that they thought of me this way.

"Ahahahaha!" someone suddenly laughed with a piercing high-pitched voice. We all froze and turned around to see three PCs walking over. But they didn't look like they were here to reach the beast statue. They were smiling so broad and crookedly like they had found the best treasure in The World, but we had already opened up the treasure box at the beast statue. Plus, they all were carrying their weapons out and swinging them around. In other words, it was a party of PKers.

"Interesting," one of them perked, "yes, indeed you do deserve it. And allow us to pass on our praise!" Suddenly one of them darted forward and lifted his blade, an enormous axe, coming at me. I was too slow to process what was going on, and then Haseo had pulled out his weapon, a heavy blade, and guarded against his attack. Silabus had also come to my side with his sword ready.

"Rgghh, Andante, you've got to run!" Haseo yelled to me. Another had come forth around Haseo, but Silabus guarded against him. Only I who had not yet pulled out my sword was left un-busy along with the one who had first spoken.

"But-" I protested.

"Just GO!" The Chaos Gate was only a few feet away, and I could make it while Silabus and Haseo were distracting the PKers. I stumbled away and started running to the gate. The third Pker, who had been waiting for this moment as if it was part of a plan, took this chance to come forth and head straight at me. Haseo, realizing late of his plan, attempted to throw off the Pker he was dealing with, but the PKers got the better of him and pushed him back first. Haseo fell back with a tumble dropping his sword, and was pushed back with so much force he collided with Silabus. Both of them fell against the dungeon wall. The two Pkers walked over to them and dug their weapons at their feet, blocking their path.

"You don't have to struggle, Terror of Death," one of them whispered to Haseo, "we won't be PKing you or him today." He jabbed a finger at Haseo and then Silabus.

"But," the other went on, "you'll get to experience the greatest show of a lifetime in The World. And guess what? Your little buddy over there is the main STAR!" Haseo and Silabus both looked passed the two PKers at once with horror to where my PC was pinned against another wall by the third PK, who wielded a large scythe.

"N-No…no…this c-can't…ANDANTE!" Silabus cried with agony feeling helpless of being pinned here to just watch.

"Arghh, damn it!" Haseo screamed trying to push his way past the PKers. But he was useless without his sword that had been pushed away from him, along with Silabus' blade, when the two PKers had both of their weapons and big enough PCs to block him.

On my side where I was pinned by the scythe user PKer, my body couldn't move. I had frozen in fear, even though I still had a chance to bring out my weapon. Why, I wondered, why can't I fight back? What is holding me back that is making me weak against this one PKer? No…it's not the PKer that was holding me back. It was fear; fear was holding me back. All of the times I had previously encountered PKers were in safe zones in the towns, they couldn't PK even if they wanted to. But here, in a dungeon, they were free to attend to their own desires. Fear, the fear I once pushed away with confidence and strength, had built up in the darkness behind my back silently. Finally, when I had least expected it, it came forth in the form of a PKer, who is one to gladly perform its wish to come true.

To PK the PC, my PC, Andante…

"Now then," the PKer pinning me against the wall started, "shall we begin the reward ceremony? Since you're the star, the one in the spotlight, I'll let you choose how you want this done. We can do it slowly, or cut it to the chase, with just as much of a filling appetite." He hissed every word like acid and was tracing against my PC with the sharpest tip of his scythe. My heart was beating very slowly I could feel every thud it made against my chest. I almost couldn't breath or speak a word, because the PKer's face and his scythe clouded my entire mind.

"…." My PC remained speechless. The PKer was suddenly beginning to grow impatient, but he kept his cool and smiled.

"Well, since we have a delightful audience, I suppose we shall take it all in…slowly." He had moved away just a couple inches for a moment turning to give a small glance at the group on the other side. I followed his gaze to see in a blurry vision Haseo trying to reach me while Silabus was frozen in his place with horror. No, I thought in my mind, I don't want them to see. I don't want them to see me like this!

The scythe, which bore a fresh shining blade attached to a black handle with red lines that spun and were traced around it, finished tracing my PC's body at her chin. It came back and away for a moment, as if giving the one who will meet its blade a full view before the cut. The PKer then lifted it up high, and with a mocking laugh sliced in one elegant but villainous swing diagonally at Andante's body.

My gaze moved from scythe to the dungeon's ceiling. Then, Andante turned ash gray.


	8. Chapter 8

**Login 8: That Forbidden Place**

My PC Andante had fallen down with a thud on the dungeon floor at Theta Falling Girl Illusion. The PKer who sliced his large scythe right through my character burst out in large howls of laughter. The other two that had been holding down Haseo and Silabus joined in with their leader, and together they left the dungeon feeling satisfied of hunting their prey for the day. As soon as they had left, Haseo and Silabus came running to where I was left. My entire PC had turned dull shades of gray, and my face was blank with horror. I had experienced for the first time the full act of PK. It could never be compared to the times before. This time it was much, much worse.

Haseo and Silabus weren't sure of what to say. It wasn't like I was knocked out unconscious. I was so full of fear, confusion, and shock I didn't really know what to respond. But…I'll never forget the look on Haseo's face that I saw. He looked so pained like the very sight of Andante lying here as an ash gray corpse was killing or burning the insides of his body.

"Let's just get her out of here," Haseo whispered to Silabus in a quiet voice. Silabus only nodded silently and Haseo used an item to revive my character. My character's color returned to normal and I could stand up again, but it did not erase all of the feelings that were twisted inside of me. Silently, the three of us left the dungeon without another word.

When we arrived back at the Chaos gate in Dol Dona, we all froze at the sight of a blue haired PC coming towards us.

"About time you guys got here," Kuhn sighed with a chuckle, "I just finished what I had to do. You guys weren't at the Home, so I'd thought you'd be at an area because you were still logged in. I decided to wait for you to come back, but it was sure a long wait! Must have been a pretty long dungeon, huh?" He finished speaking and looked at us again, but we were all avoiding his gaze silently. He looked at us curiously for a moment and was about to say something else, though Haseo who finally spoke up stopped him.

"Silabus, why don't you head back to the Home with Kuhn? Andante and I are going to another area." I was still silent but gave a small nod to go with whatever Haseo had in mind.

"Huh? But you guys just go back from an area, right? Shouldn't you at least take a small break?" Kuhn asked.

"It's…important to take care of this now," Haseo muttered.

"I understand," Silabus exclaimed, "then Kuhn and I will head to the Home. If we're still online by the time you get back, send us a short mail. We'll be waiting!" Silabus almost sounded like his normal self, but even I could tell he was giving it his all to keep his composure.

"I'm counting on you," Haseo gave a small smile and then motioned me to follow him as Silabus left the party. I gave a small apologetic look to Kuhn, whose face was still confused and worried but a little understanding on the situation, warping out with Haseo.

Haseo transferred us back to the delta server in the root town Mac Anu. He was about to make another transfer, but he stopped in order to inform me about something first.

"Before we warp, I need to warn you about something. The area we are about to warp to is not your normal area. This area…is known as a Lost Ground. Have you heard of them?" I slowly nodded. I vaguely remember my friend telling me about them once when he accidentally stumbled into one. He told me it was like some make-believe fantasy, because everything looked so real when majority of the game are made up of flat backgrounds. There weren't any monsters or treasure chests, so its known to be a useless area. Still, people are drawn to them so there's a lot of talk about it around players.

Haseo, being satisfied that he didn't have the need to give any further explanation, turned back to the Chaos Gate and continued," All right. We'll be warping into Delta Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground, The Hulle Granz Cathedral."

**-Delta Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground-**

Shortly after a few minutes, we warped in to Delta Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground. I looked around the area. There wasn't much to the place; just a bridge leading up to an old church. Other surroundings were nothing but what looked like a dried up lake. Suddenly I saw Haseo wasn't beside me anymore, but already walking on his own towards the church.

I hurried to catch up to him. I managed to catch up to him before he got inside, and together we went in. There wasn't anything but the scenery of the inside of a church. We walked forward in silence until Haseo stopped at a stone pedestal at the front of the church. I looked at it and noticed a red triangular-shaped carved image on the stone. At first I thought it was just part of the scenery, but before I could ask anything about it Haseo spoke up.

"This place…was where it all began."

"What…began?" I asked, using my voice for the first time since we were at the previous dungeon.

"The reason I'm here playing The World right now." Haseo looked at me, and I could see in his PC looked at me with such sad eyes. I knew I had only just recently met Haseo on my first login after installing this game, and while he has shown me some emotion during the times we've talked, they've only been expressions of irritation or anger. This was the first time I saw this much sadness in his PC's eyes. Now, I had a feeling I was going to learn almost everything about him after such a short time. I looked back at him quietly, waiting for him to continue.

"Have you ever heard any rumors about people falling into comas while playing this game?"

"Umm…I haven't really read much, but I think there was something about that because of some sort of bug?" I offered though I wasn't completely sure if this was true. Rumors are just rumors, right? Then I vaguely remembered again about that one time we met…

"AIDA…" Haseo whispered. I looked at him questionably. "Do you remember the time the two of us went to that dungeon with Kuhn and encountered AIDA?"

I nodded, "Those black spots. And then…at that time I lost unconsciousness…"

"You lost consciousness?" Haseo gasped.

"Kuhn never told you?"

"Oh, I guess I never did talk to him about what happened after I defeated AIDA," Haseo realized. The two of us stood in silence for a moment before I decided to speak up what's been on my mind.

"Haseo, can I…ask you something?"

"Hmm?" he looked at me, "What is it?"

"Why did you…look so sad back at the dungeon after I was…"

"…."

"Haseo?"

"I…was reminded of some old memories. I was here in the cathedral once before with an old friend. She told me a lot about this place…and about The World. She's the reason I'm still here playing this game." Haseo paused for a moment, not to think of an answer, but to decide whether or not he should tell the whole story.

"I…wasn't always the PKK Terror of Death in the beginning," he started. He looked at the scarred pedestal and then up to the stained glass window of the cathedral where light was filtering in. "I was just a newbie like you were. Fresh to The World, about to discover a lot of this game and its features, and meet other players. But…my first log-in wasn't exactly pleasant. I met some odd players who generously offered to help me get used to The World. Being a newbie, I accepted their invitation. However, these players that appeared to be nice were actually acting PKers."

"What? So you got-"

"I got Pked," Haseo shrugged. "Of course, that's all in the past, but its what happened. I was just a newbie, so even though I was taught the basics at that time, I wasn't exactly prepared to defend myself. Then…someone else came, came to that place I was Pked and saved me."

"Was it…that person you mentioned before?" I asked.

"Nah, I didn't meet her till later. The one who saved me was…a man named Ovan. He was…a man full of mystery. I could never tell what he was thinking, and he was always disappearing on his own from time to time. But through him, I met Shino. In a guild known as the Twilight Brigade."

"Twilight Brigade? What an unusual name for a guild," I thought out loud. Haseo gave a small laugh.

"Ha, the whole guild was pretty unusual, except for its members. "Ovan invited me to join him, and when I met Shino I was able to learn a lot about The World."

"Was she…like your online girlfriend or something?" I asked randomly without thinking. Haseo blushed and scratched his head.

"Uh…w-we were just friends," he muttered. "Real…good friends." Haseo's tone suddenly changed as he started thinking to himself.

Something tugged in my heart at that moment to automatically ask him, "Did something happen between the two of you?" And I didn't mean just a small fight. Somehow, the real answer felt deeper than that.

Haseo looked down at the red scar on the pedestal. I looked at it too, and since we couldn't select it, it must have been part of the background. But it looked a bit abnormal from the rest of the scenery, like it forced it to be here. Then again, this whole place seems to be abnormal. Even though, I felt a bit peaceful here standing inside this cathedral.

"Shino…fell into a coma in this place," Haseo finally said.

"Eh?"

"She was Pked here, by an abnormal PKer known as Tri-Edge, and fell into a coma. She's been in a coma ever since that incident." I fell silent and looked from Haseo to the pedestal in front of us and back.

"So…this mark was made by him…this Tri-Edge," I nearly shivered at the sound of that name, but Haseo remained unstirred. He was either putting on a brave front or used to telling this story by now.

"Tri-edge…he was a PKer that I had been hunting and searching for months. He was…the main reason I became a PKK. Back then, when Shino was Pked, I didn't make it in time to save her. And that struck me down hard. So from that day, I started training. I shunned everything of The World away just to focus on leveling up my character. I wanted to be stronger, and I wanted power."

"Power? As in to be a strong fighter?" I inquired.

"Oh, I wanted more than just to be a strong fighter. In fact, perhaps I wasn't exactly going for strength itself. I wanted an ultimate "power" that was enough to fight off and defeat Tri-edge. At some point, I reached my power. Then, I started searching for him. The famous PKK Tri-Edge. Most players don't actually think he exists. To them he's merely a myth. But to me, he's real, because I've seen him with my own eyes. Though since I had acquired such a high power, I earned a dark reputation."

"The Terror of Death."

"Exactly. Of course, at that time, no PKer was any match for me. I could take them out in one blow. I even went against about 50 of them at once."

"What?"

"But that wasn't enough," Haseo continued. "No matter how much I searched, no matter how many levels I gained, no matter how PKers I fought, I couldn't get anywhere close to Tri-Edge. Even though…. I was drunk in my own power. I didn't mind at all that I was looked down upon by others, or targeted by hundreds of PKers. Until one fateful day…when I finally found Tri-Edge."

I didn't have to think hard to guess where he met him.

"It was here," Haseo confirmed, "inside this Hulle Granz cathedral. I ran into Ovan, who I hadn't seen since a little before Shino's incident when our guild broke up, in town. He told me that Tri-Edge would come here. And so I made my way to this place as fast as I could. I was lost in my own mind, thinking that I could finally take him down, finally save Shino. But…Tri-Edge is no ordinary PK. I don't even think he was a normal player."

"Was he a bug?" I asked automatically thinking as a worker of CC Corp.

"No…if he was a bug, CC Corp would've been able to do something about him. When I started to fight him, he took no damage at all, nor did he have any break in his defense. It was like fighting an unbreakable wall. I couldn't penetrate him. But he did; he wiped out my weapons to pieces and then…he took me out."

"So you were Pked again?" Haseo coughed a sarcastic laugh and his tone went dark.

"Oh, it was more than just getting Pked. With my equipment shattered, I couldn't defend myself. Then Tri-Edge shattered my PC into broken pieces as if I was a mere toy. He completely erased my power, power that I once held and planned to hold onto for eternal years. The most bizarre event occurred after that."

I looked at him patiently. He gave me a quick glance and then stared deep into my eyes. When he spoke, I almost couldn't believe my ears. Perhaps I wanted to cover them since the beginning. But I listened, and I took Haseo's words deep inside of me, inside my PC Andante.

"I was dropped from my level 133 PKK The Terror of Death, to a mere level 1 as a newbie."

I didn't want to believe what Haseo told me. I almost passed it on as a joke. "Level 133 all the way down to level 1? That's impossible," I exclaimed baffled. There's no way the system of The World would have been programmed to do that.

"Impossible, yes, but it did happen. I was quite shocked, and I had lost everything," Haseo sighed. "Or maybe…I had already lost everything. Ever since Ovan left me, ever since the brigade broke up, ever since I became a PKK, and ever since I lost Shino." Haseo quieted down again and this time he had a hard time thinking of what to say next. Now that I had finally been able to hear a bit more of the truth about Haseo, I felt like I wanted to help him in any way possible. But I had never experienced something as dramatic as Haseo had. So how can someone like me help someone like Haseo?

"It'll be all right," I responded automatically in the silence. Haseo turned to me surprised. "I mean, I now know you must be going through a lot, and that I'll never be able to understand how you've felt about it. But…you're not alone right now. You may have been separated from Ovan and Shino, but you've still got your friends. Silabus, Gaspard, Kuhn, and…me. We're here for you too." I wasn't sure how much these words would mean to Haseo, or that if they'd be of any help at all. Though there was a small light in my heart that believed that it could penetrate whatever darkness Haseo was currently struggling with in his heart.

"Yeah…" Haseo smiled. Every time he did, my heart felt lighter than it was before and I felt more relieved about everything. Haseo was one of the very few people who rarely smiled so it seemed nice when he actually did. But there was still a small part of me that felt scared of something from what happened the other day.

"Say…Haseo," I whispered suddenly looking down at the ground.

"Hmm? What is it?" He looked at me and noticed my head was down. "Is something wrong?"

"You don't act like a PKK anymore right?" I asked timidly. He didn't have to take long to answer.

"Of course not, I told you before, there's no meaning in going back to THAT again. Besides…that ended a long time ago when I was defeated by Tri-Edge."

"I see…"

Haseo didn't look convinced at my response. "Are you….Andante, are you afraid of me?"

"Oh no! I was just wondering…because it doesn't seem to fit right. I can't seem to fit you in the same kind of image as those PKers from earlier. You're more…kinder."

Haseo blushed and shook his head, "I've been just as bad, maybe worse, like other PKers before. But I've changed, and I'm glad I did. I was such a monster back then." I was about to say something more but he stopped me there, "Don't worry about it. I'm sorry you've been through a lot with this whole PKers issue, but I'll protect you better from now on. Hey, like you told me earlier just now, 'you're not alone'. Now come one, it's getting late."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Near The End**

I logged off for the day exhausted of everything that happened. I slipped my M2D off my eyes and was about to flop onto my bed when I nearly tripped in the darkness. I managed to stop myself before I crashed onto the floor and landing…on top of someone. Faintly in the darkness my eyes immediately outlined the figure of Tomonari who was sleeping loudly on my floor across the table beside his laptop. _He must have logged out while I was talking to Haseo, _I thought. But I was surprised that he suddenly crashed at my place.

It was already evening, although I wasn't sure if it was already the next day or not. I looked over at my digital clock and saw it was still the same day since I logged in earlier, several hours passed. Getting up, I went to my bed and pulled the blanket over to Tomonari and placed it over him. It felt early for me to hit the hay myself just yet, so I pulled out my jogging jacket and sweatpants and headed out for a run. The air outside was getting a little cold, with winter coming around the corner soon.

As I started to jog into town, I noticed a cafe still open on the corner of a street. Jogging up to get a closer look, I noticed Yokuro was sitting inside at one of the tables by the window with a deep expression on his face. I was unsure whether to leave him alone or not when he looked up at me and gave me a small wave. I nodded to him and took it as an invitation to talk to him. Giving my legs a break, I entered the late night cafe.

"Good evening Himonoko. It's quite rare to see you here at this time," Yokuro greeted as a waitress led me to his table. He smiled just as usual, but there was something about his expression that seemed off.

"Yeah, I was just out jogging," I said as the waitress handed me a menu. I placed an order for coffee and Yokuro asked for a refill of his.

"Haha, I can see that. You sure keep yourself in top shape."

"I was always scolded when I was younger for being lazy playing too many videogames, so I had to start exercising every day," I laughed. I expected Yokuro to laugh with me, but his expression changed all of a sudden. I was about to ask if something was wrong, but kept silent and waited for Yokuro to speak on his own. He started after the waitress came with our coffe.

"Himonoko, I know it's pretty late, but can you come meet me in The World? There's...something I need to talk to you about." I looked at him with a bit of surprise and curiosity as to why he'd want to meet up, but I quickly cleared my head before I could start any weird thoughts.

"Sure, that's not a problem. I'll log in as soon as I get home."

"Meet me in front of the fountain at Mac Anu, where we were when you first came into The World." Yokuro slowly looked up to me straight in the eye. His expression was a big indicator, but my mind was elsewhere during that time that I never considered it meant anything.

….

Running all the way back to my apartment, I quietly entered my place. Tomonari was still asleep on the same spot he was in when he left_. Good, I can still use my bed_, I thought a bit relieved. Although I doubted I would get much sleep at all after logging in. I quickly booted up my laptop again and was about to slip on my M2D when I heard a sudden noise beside me.

"EEK," I nearly squeaked as I quickly cover my mouth from letting any sounds disturb the neighbors. Tomonari had just woken up and was staring at me with a blank, maybe droopy, gaze.

"Huh? Himonoko-san? What are you doing here?" We stared at each other for a long time until his expression changed from a blank state to a very surprised and shocked one. He was about to let out a sudden yell when I hushed him down.

"SHHH! You'll wake the neighbors up!" I whispered. He held his breath for five seconds before letting it out in a quiet, slow gush.

"Sorry!" he whispered back. Taking another look around he replied, "I forgot I was at your place, and I ended up falling asleep too! Man, I must have caused you so much trouble..."

"N-No, it's fine," I kind of laughed. He looks back at me and notices the M2D in my hands.

"Hmm? Are you going to log into The World right now? It's pretty late now." His eyes gazed over to my digital clock.

"Ah, well, while you were asleep I went out for a jog and happened to meet up with Yokuro-san. He actually wants to meet me in The World right now to discuss something, so…"

"I see…but with this current time it seems to be pretty important. Want me to come with you?"

"I don't mind myself, but would that be okay with you? And what would Yokuro-san say?"

"I'm fine myself, but…you do have a point there," Tomonari laughed. "Well, if he doesn't want me around, I can always leave and wait for you to finish somewhere else."

"Oh, I'm sure it's fine if you come!" I quickly reassure him, "I mean, we're all co-workers at CC Corp, so it should be fine."

Tomonari smiled, "All right then. Just give me a few seconds to boot up my computer." I nodded as I slipped back on my M2D. It felt weird logging into "The World" at this time, but with the previous commotion I didn't really feel tired at all. But I did wonder if I was working myself too hard or not.

Delta Server Mac Anu

After seconds of logging in to the root town Mac Anu, the two of us appeared with our characters Andante and Kuhn. I was almost surprised with how many players were still logged in. When I pointed this out, Tomonari (or rather Kuhn in The World) merely laughed.

"It's not exactly late for some people, depending on where you're logging in from in the real world," he explained.

"That's right. The World is an online game that can be accessed globally."

"So where's Welk?" Kuhn asked looking around.

"He said he'd be waiting by the fountain at the Central District. We'd better hurry before he decides to leave."

We found Welk waiting casually by the fountain. When we approached, he looked over and showed a small hint of surprise but kept his expression well composed.

"Hey," he gave a small greeting.

"Hi Welk! Been waiting long?" I smiled. But for a moment I thought his greeting carried a slight bit of concern.

"Not really…" he exclaimed as he shifted his gaze away from us. There was only silence between us for a while until Kuhn spoke up.

"Um…is my presence somehow a bother?" he asked Welk. Welk looked back at us to reply, however, his expression and tone didn't change the slightest.

"There's no issue with you being here," Welk spoke calmly but formally, "in fact it's probably best that you're here with Andante too." Kuhn gave a questionable look and gazed over to me. I returned his gaze with a confused shrug and turned my attention back to Welk.

"You said earlier that you had something to discuss. Is something wrong?" Welk took quite an amount of time to think carefully about he was going to say. His PC's expression remained blank, so we couldn't guess whether or not he was frustrated or concerned. Finally, he straightened up his PC and turned his character to face me directly.

"I've been called in by the higher-ups at CC Corp lately and we've been discussing a pending issue. And it's something…concerning you, Andante…"

"Concerning me?" I asked.

"Wait a minute," Kuhn interrupted, "What do the higher-ups need with Andante? She's only a part timer…"

"BECAUSE she's a part timer we've been discussing this issue." Welk looked at me in the eye again, and though we were a distance apart for a moment I felt as if he was right in front of me in the real world. "I'll be blunt…the higher ups want to let you go." As soon as those words escaped from Welk's lips, my heart stopped for a millisecond.

"Let me go…?" I questioned. "As in…"

"What? Why?" Kuhn asked. Welk gave a long sigh and muttered something about not wanting to be the one who has to do this.

"When I had been assigned to be your supervisor when you first arrived at CC Corp, I was also ordered to file in daily reports about your progress in detail. In turn, they took those reports and examined them very carefully. Of course it wasn't much since I wasn't always with you. But during those times…I got my reports from a different source." As Welk said the last sentence, his voice was filled with regret.

"You can't mean…" Kuhn began but quickly cut himself off and looked away. I looked back and forth between Kuhn and Welk with a confused look. A different source? My progress…in detail? As I tried to piece Welk's words over and over again in patterns, I realized something silently. But I kept my mouth shut and asked another question.

"When?" I whispered. Both Kuhn and Welk looked at me with blank expressions. "When am I supposed to…move out?"

"Tomorrow morning by the earliest if possible," Welk exclaimed straightforwardly. "Although I would recommend you get some rest before then," he added.

"I see." I looked down at the ground. I thought I was going to cry at that moment, both in The World and in the real world. But my eyes remained dry. No one said another word for a while, as if to give me time to think to myself about this situation. Finally I said, "I'll be there by 8 to pick up my stuff." After that I slowly walked away from Welk and Kuhn with Andante nearly looking as limp as a puppet without strings. Kuhn was going to follow me, but Welk stopped him with a hand and shook his head. Silently they both watched me disappear from sight.

Kuhn whispered to Welk long after I had gone concerning the "source" he mentioned. "Welk, tell me…did the source you happen to mention have anything to do with GU?"

"I'm afraid so," Welk confessed. Kuhn let out an angry breath. "CC Corp had no choice but to consult to the Serpent of Lore after hearing about Andante's encounters with…AIDA."

"You knew? You knew all along about AIDA and the Serpent of Lore?" Kuhn yelled. Welk raised a hand in defense.

"I've heard my own share of rumors about them, but I've hardly given much time to thoroughly look into them myself. The Higher-ups gave me this source when I wasn't filling in enough."

"You're saying that people in CC Corp suspect Andante of being some kind of threat or danger? She's just a regular player!"

"She's encountered too much of AIDA and abnormal activities while working within CC Corp. They're…afraid she'll slip something out to the media about them."

"But it's not Andante's fault! All those events were an accident she couldn't control, and you know we've been doing our best to keep it all in control," Kuhn protested. Welk gave a long sigh and shook his head.

"I didn't want to believe this when CC Corp called me in this morning regarding this matter. I care about her just as much as you do not because she's an employee, but because she's our friend. But I'm afraid, as a friend, there's not much we can offer to her right now except wait. Right now the best person who could sort out this whole matter is her own self, as Himonoko Rai, and also as Andante. It'll be her own decision whether or not she will open the door for us to come in." Kuhn couldn't say anything more after Welk finished talking.

Kuhn remembered he was logged in at my apartment room. He logged out in order to give me some real space.

….

Tomonari was still at my place even after I had left them in "The World". If he had something to say to me in the real world, he made himself wise to not utter a sound. Slowly, he took off his M2D and got up from where he was seated.

My mind must have been concentrated on something deep in "The World" that I didn't hear nor notice his movement. It was silent in the room, except for the noise of the computers and the soft movement of my hands on my controller. Tomonari gave a long sigh and looked at me once more.

"I'm sorry…for everything you had to go through…Rai…" Tomonari whispered into the darkness. He looked out the window for a brief moment. It was still dark, but dawn must be approaching soon. Tomonari went back to gather his stuff and prepared to leave. "Get some sleep soon," he whispered last before exiting out the door. He quickly borrowed the spare key to lock the door behind him and slid it carefully under the door. Tomonari gave one last look at the door to my apartment room and left.

….

After I had left Kuhn and Welk by the fountain, my PC just aimlessly walked passed players and shops through the town in an unfocused daze. I could only see my feet walking a step at a time as I slowly let scenery of The World pass by me. I didn't know where I wanted to go or where I should go. I thought the harbor would be a good place to stop, but I knew there would be other players there. I didn't want to be around random PCs I didn't know.

I thought about heading over to Canard, but then I realized Canard no longer existed in Mac Anu. Heading over to the HOME in the Mercenary district would prove pointless. In the end, I warped over to the Alchemy district and stood on the bridge overlooking a canal. Other players were passing by me, chatting in the game like normal. I just stood there on the bridge looking down at the canal when a voice spoke up that wasn't directed to any of the players passing by me.

"Amazing, isn't it? Even though it's only part of the game's graphics, the details make something as simple as a canal look so real you feel like you just want to touch it." I turned my PC's view a bit to see a familiar green clothed PC smiling behind me. I remained silent and turned my PC back around to stare over the edge of the bridge at the canal again. When Silabus didn't hear an immediate reply from me, he came forward and stood beside me to look at the canal himself.

"Doesn't seem like a waste though?" I finally asked. "Spending so much time creating detailed graphics for a canal when they could merely just block it out."

"That's just one of the many wonders of The World, isn't it? There are so many things of this world that may seem pointless at first, but as you look at each and every one of those wonders you begin to appreciate a lot about The World. Take this canal for example. I think it's pretty calming to stare at the waters of the canal when you need a time to think to yourself, " Silabus smiled.

"What's the point in making something like this canal when players just pass by it to get to more useful places?"

"It's there to be available to players who would want to look at it and appreciate its presence, even if it's just graphics."

"Nobody would just stop and look at the canal on the bridge," I stated tilting my head towards all the players passing by us on the bridge without even a glance. However, Silabus had a different thought for me.

"But weren't you looking at the canal yourself when you stopped here on this bridge?" I froze, startled by his observations.

"I…" no words could form correctly in my mouth. Letting out a sigh, I glance back down at the canal again. There was still so much I didn't know about The World, so much I could explore with friends or on my own, so much I could learn and grow to love. But…if I didn't know why I was doing all of this, then what's the point in playing in the first place? My initial reason has already been distorted in my mind that now I feel like I'm just taking up space even though The World is much too big for space to fill at all.

"I…I'm thinking about quitting The World," I confessed. Silabus stopped talking for a moment and looked at me with quiet shock. I continued, "but, I'm afraid of quitting, because there's so much I've done in The World that mean so much to me. It'll feel like I'll be destroying myself if I quit, even if I'm just quitting as the PC Andante. But what can I do? I started playing this game only because opportunities have opened before me and there were certain people that were able to push me through. Those opportunities…suddenly are being taken away from me all of a sudden, and I'll lose the people I know as well if I quit." I shook my head, feeling guilty again that I couldn't sort anything out.

"Then…maybe you don't need those opportunities anymore," Silabus cut in while I was thinking.

"Huh?"

"For example, I've always wanted to help new players in The World with Canard while having fun playing. And I've already come across several opportunities for that, including meeting you," he smiled at me for a moment before continuing. "Now, you've already become a really good player in The World that there isn't really much for Gaspard and I to teach you. But just because one opportunity has ended doesn't mean I'm finished with the game after completing it. There are still much more newbies like you we would come across that need help, so I can't just stop there. New players come with new opportunities!"

I was shocked at how much Silabus could say about this situation when I could barely form up a single thought about it. Then I realized something I had been missing at the start of our conversation. It wasn't Silabus' knowledge of The World that brought him to this point; it was love. It was his strong love for The World as a player. I had been trying too hard to sort out the situation regarding leaving CC Corp from the perspective as a part-timer, when I should have been thinking about my experience in The World as a regular player.

A regular player, I thought. That hot sticky summer day standing in front of a job listing bullentin board, where I was offered a job at CC Corp. What if I had found a job before I had been offered one at CC Corp? Would I have been able to create my character Andante and log into The World as I am now? Would I have been able to meet Kuhn and the others and still run into those accidents with AIDA? And would I have even heard of The World if my friend from years ago didn't bring it up with the enthusiasm he had back then when we met for lunch?

Before I could answer my own questions I had summed up in my head, our conversation was cut short.

"Hey Noob!" Silabus suddenly froze at the approach of three threatening-looking PCs, but I hadn't moved one inch. They stared intently at us before talking quietly amongst themselves. While they were talking, I quickly shot them a glance to see their appearances. They didn't look like any PCs I've met before (or PKs for that matter judging by their speech). But when they appeared before us, I also noticed something in the area had changed. Not only were those three PKs staring and whispering at me, but other players that were passing by had also stopped in their paths to look and quick point at me between other players.

_What the heck? _I wondered. _Why is everyone looking at us?_ I had a feeling Silabus was thinking the same thing.

The three PKs that first approached us then began to speak out loud in the public chat, so we were able to hear their conversation.

"You sure she's the one? There could be just another PC like her…"

"Nah, the description sounds pretty accurate, and they posted exactly where she'd be at, so that's more than enough proof! And I'm sure if we ask…_nicely_, she'd be willing to answer." They began to stare at me specifically now and called out to me.

"Hey! Girl with the black braid! Is it true that you're the 'BUG girl'?"

"Huh? What are you talking about?" I shot back at them, but my heart couldn't help but lurch for a moment. _Could they be talking about AIDA?_

"You heard us! The bug girl. Rumors have it that you possess some type of black bug in The World. Maybe that's why you're always talking big to Kestrel PKs, because you're holding some type of bug that you would use against us!" I froze with disbelief at their words. Sure, I encountered AIDA a few times during my game play, but never have I actually possessed it as a power. Whenever AIDA attached to my PC, it was always removed after. Even if I did have it, I wouldn't use it against PKs just because I'm getting picked on, would I?

But worst of all was their mention of the rumors. Anything regarding rumors of The World would be posted as a forum on the Rumors Board, and it's open for everyone so anybody would be able to see it. Have people been talking behind my back about me, and I didn't know it because I was too worried about my own problems?

As we were talking, other players began whispering louder about me. Stuff like being a hacker, a threat to The World, some type of criminal. They were almost appearing to be accusing me of a crime I didn't commit or could control! Being reminded of my problems again, I snapped.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I shouted at the three PKs who all suddenly jumped at the volume of my voice. "What bug girl? What rumors?" Even though I only shouted my questions because I wanted to know answers, they misunderstood.

"S-She's gone mad! She's trying to control our minds!" One of the PKs yelled causing a stir among players.

"That's not-I wasn't trying to-…" I protested balling my hands into fists stepping forward closer to the PKs. _Are they blind? How can they think I'm that dangerous?_

Silabus, being so quiet it was like he wasn't even there with me, put a hand on my shoulder to hold me back. "Andante…don't…if you try to fight them, they'll…" _You'll just get hurt even more Andante, _Silabus thought in his mind as he looked at me with a worried expression.

Suddenly, someone in the PC crowd shouted, "Look! There are system administrators coming this way!" Everyone the area stopped and followed the PC's line of sight to where he was pointing. Sure enough, there were five system administrator PCs walking steadily towards the location of where a crowd had gathered around us. Their PCs were specifically designed to look like system administrators, so it wasn't at all hard to guess who they are. Or why they were here. Immediately, several players began dispersing away from the area, even the PKs that were in front of us. I had a very bad feeling about this. Before I could utter a word to Silabus, he turned to look at me in the face.

"Andante! You have to get out of here! Those system administrators mean serious business, and whether or not the rumors are true if they catch you…" Silabus cautioned me, " you'll be forced into the wrong situation, and they'll take you somewhere where there won't be anyone to help you when you've done nothing wrong!"

"Silabus…" I whispered. I wanted to run away, but I didn't think I would have a chance against system administrators. They're a part of CC Corp, and CC Corp would have access to any place in The World that a PC could go to. If I run to Canard, they'll catch me; if I run to an area, it won't take them long to look up the area words. And I certainly didn't want to leave Silabus here all by himself. Who knows what they would do to him in order to get answers; he's witnessed enough. _Think Andante! Think! Where could I go that CC Corp wouldn't find me?_ My eyes quickly scanned over my screen as if I could find the answer right there. And I did.

Haseo

My eyes landed on Haseo's name under my member addresses. For a moment I didn't know what good looking at his name would do. But it was because of his name I was able to remember something. Without giving another second up to explain anything, I hastily grabbed Silabus' arm and started running at the system administrators.

"A-Andante?" Silabus gasped as I held onto him tight being careful not to let go.

"Keep up with me Silabus!" I shouted even if I wasn't letting go. Startled upon seeing my incoming running at them, they stopped for a brief moment allowing a small opening to break between them for me and Silabus to pass through. Once I passed them, I didn't stop my pace, and increased it even more. "Excuse us!" I shouted among other players I passed by as I ran with Silabus towards Mac Anu's Chaos Gate. It was evident that other system administrators had been alerted of the current situation, for there were several of them that would suddenly appear out of nowhere to stop us. Swiftly, I managed to dodge them while still keeping a hold on Silabus, who was helplessly speechless at our sudden running away together, and break towards the dome. But when we got inside, there were several administrators standing in front of the Chaos Gate, blocking our chance of escape.

"Damn…" I muttered screeching to a halt several feet in front of them.

"W-What do we do?" Silabus cried beside me. Being just a completely normal player, he wasn't at all sure of how to handle CC Corp's administrators. And even I, although being a former part-timer of the elite CC Corp, rarely encountered these administrators myself. No one messes with CC Corp.

"PC Andante. You are held under charges for disrupting other PCs in The World with possession of an abnormal bug posing a threat to the system. You must give up your character now for deletion or suffer consequences in court," They announced in a monotonous warning.

_Here we go again, I'm being charged for uncommitted crimes, and this time they want my PC because of it. _I stared at them long and hard. At that moment I saw Silabus' grip on my hand tighten around my fingers. I looked up at him for a moment into his eyes. He slowly smiled at me, with sad but assuring eyes. I smiled back and gave a small nod.

"We'll get through this," I whispered. As shooting stars would fall, two PCs warped in by the Chaos Gate and pushed all the administrators that were blocking the gate. Silabus and I stared at them with much surprise.

"OOPS, I'm sorry, were we in your way?" A familiar voice laughed. The steam gunner PC Kuhn looked up at us with a smile and gave us thumbs up with a small wink. "My bad, we didn't know the gate would land us here on this exact spot. Right, Welk?"

"CC Corp should really look into where they put their administrators," Welk shrugged. "After all, the Chaos Gate is still active to _certain players_." The steam gunner PCs looked at us and nodded. I gave them thumbs up back and led Silabus to the Chaos Gate while Kuhn and Welk kept the administrators busy. We quickly formed a party in order to be transferred to the same place. I gave no hesitation into what area words I would choose. Just before the Chaos Gate had transferred us, I whispered to my two great friends I had met through my work with CC Corp.

"Thank you…dear friends," and we were transferred by the gate.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: To the Ends of The World**

**Delta Hidden Forbidden Holy Grounds**

The Hulle Granz Cathedral stood before us still on top of the broken bridge in the dried up lake. Silabus and I warped in beside the Chaos Gate alone. I felt a little worried for Kuhn and Welk, whom we had left back at Mac Anu's dome, but I had no doubt they'd be able to handle themselves and pull through it. I had to keep my trust strong for them while I deal with my current situation.

I had been oblivious to Silabus for a bit since our arrival warp into the Lost Ground that I nearly jumped when he first spoke. "It sure is quiet around here," he commented looking around. Before I was going to respond, I noticed his hand was still in mine. I quickly let go of it without freaking out too much; although Silabus didn't seem to notice.

"Yeah, this area is special for being different from normal areas in The World. CC Corp can't access these areas, so we're safe here. There won't be any more system administrators following us."

"I'm glad," Silabus smiled, "heh, I was pretty surprised when we ran from those administrators. I never thought we'd, or rather, you'd escape…" He went silent for a moment, and I had a feeling he was thinking about the reason why CC Corp would send admins against me. But I shook my head clear of those thoughts. What's done is done; it was my choice to run from them and not give up my character. But…

"I'm sorry…" I apologized looking up at Silabus for a moment at his face.

"W-What for? Why are you apologizing?"

"For dragging you into this mess. You…you're just a normal player who just wanted to have fun playing The World with helping newbies and being a part of Canard. However, I'm…" I stopped my breath, unsure of how much I should share with Silabus. But, it shouldn't matter anymore, should it? I'm no longer part of CC Corp (heck I even went against them), and Silabus already saw my character become…infected, once. He's been worried about me ever since everything happened, so he should deserve to know. Yet, I couldn't continue, until he spoke again.

""It doesn't really matter who you were or what you did to make CC Corp chase after you. What matters more is who you truly are inside as the player of Andante and doing what you feel is true to your heart."

"Really?" I used to think I would always be judged by past mistakes and accomplishments, and that no one could change over time no matter how hard they tried. But there was a better truth deeper down inside me. My heart.

"Really, and hey, I don't mind at all spending time with you, even if it had gotten a bit dangerous a few times. As fellow members of Canard, we know each other pretty well by now, more than CC Corp could ever possibly know!" Silabus smiled the same smile I had seen when I first met him at Canard's old At Home the first day I logged into The World.

"T-Thanks…" I muttered bashfully. "Why I had seemed to involve you…it was because I…I needed you, and I may continue to need you as I hold on to my PC Andante."

Silabus stared at me for a long moment and gave a soft laugh, "Haha, you sound just like Haseo! Funny thing is…whenever I'm with you like this; it feels like I'm with Haseo. You two seem a lot alike."

I'm sure it was a compliment, but I was embarrassed a bit that I quickly brushed it off for a moment. "A-Anyway, since we're here, let's go inside!" I quickly marched stiffly ahead of Silabus.

"Inside?"

"The cathedral," I spun around for a moment pointing towards the sky touching building taking up most of the vision of the area.

I led the way pushing the giant oak doors open as we made our way inside. All was still silent as our own footsteps began to echo in the hall. The inside of the cathedral has still remained the same since I last visited this place. The stained glass windows filtering in light, the pedestal with the red triangular scar carved into it, Haseo…

Haseo?

I blinked twice before I noticed for the first time we weren't the only ones inside the cathedral. A familiar black adept rogue stood before the scarred pedestal with his arm crossed. He heard our approach and turned to greet us.

"Yo," he lightly waved, "I see you made it here. Heh, you even brought Silabus with you."

"I didn't want to get anyone involved, but I wouldn't have made it here if not for my friends," I shrugged tossing a quick smile a Silabus, who smiled back. "So…what's the plan now? That's why you're here, right? As a messenger…"

"I'm not some messenger boy!" Haseo relayed to me in an irritating tone, but immediately softened his voice to explain, "I was just hanging around Dol Dona after paying a visit to Canard when I noticed a bunch of system admins had warped in and were searching around the area for a rumored 'bug girl' PC."

"So they weren't just searching around Mac Anu," I whispered. Haseo gave me a curious look but I nodded to him to continue.

"Anyway, before I could figure out what was going on, I ran into Kuhn and a PC I've never seen before who was with him. Kuhn discussed with me via private chat that the admins were looking for you and not in a good way. They were on their way to Mac Anu, but they told me to go and wait for you in a place where CC Corp wouldn't be able to catch you normally. Looks like I picked the right place and lucky you remembered where to go as well."

"It hasn't been too long since I've been here, and…I remembered what you told me about this place." A small silence followed after I had spoken, and the three of us just stood there until Silabus spoke up.

"So is Kuhn coming over here to meet us?" Silabus asked, seeming to catch on with the conversation.

"Yeah, he should be-" As if on cue, the cathedral doors opened and two more pairs of footsteps approached us.

"Phew! I'd thought they'd never leave." Kuhn laughed as he walked towards us. Behind him came Welk, giving us a small smile as he stood next to Kuhn.

"CC Corp system administrators are sure hard to deal with," Welk sighed.

"Were you two okay?" I asked with concern. Welk gave me a pat on my head.

"Relax," Welk assured me in private chat, "Kuhn and I had organized a last-minute meeting with the higher-ups to re-discuss the situation that had gotten out of hand. It was a little rough and we thought we wouldn't be able to solve anything. But just as we were about to give up, some people Kuhn was acquainted with dropped a phone call to help sort the rest out." He looked up for a brief moment at Kuhn, who was whispering something to Haseo.

"So you mean…"

"CC Corp won't bother you anymore about the mess that had unfolded. We got everything under control when we convinced them that they were overacting a bit with the rumors. Even though the bug was serious, they had gone to far to blame you for possessing it as a weapon, when you were merely the victim. We even found recorded proof that you had never inflicted any harm to anyone. And if you did, it was only to protect yourself or those around you."

"Wow," I sighed, "To think you and Kuhn went through all of that just to help me…"

"It's fine, we're your co-workers and also your friends."

"Friends huh…" I gazed over Welk, Haseo, Kuhn, and finally Silabus. "Yes…thank you, my friends."

...

Morning arrived, and so did the day that I, Himonoko Rai, would resign being an employer at CC Corp. I never got even an ounce of sleep. But thanks to all the excitement from last night, I wasn't totally dead on my feet either.

Even though the issue with CC Corp had been resolved, in the end it was my own decision to leave CC Corp. After everything I've been through since that fated summer caused something new to be born inside my heart. I wanted to completely see The World with my own eyes in my own way alongside the friends that I trust and care about. CC Corp helped me start that, but now I wanted to go into The World using my own skill and knowledge. In a way, it'll be like graduating from my training in CC Corp, even though I'll no longer be in part with them in the future.

As I was getting dressed, my cell phone buzzed on my coffee table alerting new mail. I quickly hurried to get ready before I opened up the messages.

_To: Rai_

_From: Yokuro_

_The place of meeting will be the cafe we were at the previous night. _

_Report in 5 min, don't be late ;)_

I gave a small giggle. "Geez, Yokuro-san, I'm not an employee in training anymore. I certainly hope he's joking about that." I clicked the next button to read another message. The next two were from Tomonari.

_To: Rai_

_From: Tomonari_

_Hey, how are you doing? Last night was pretty hectic, huh? _

_I hope you were able to get some sleep XD_

_You're going to the cafe meeting right? _

_I'll be seeing you shortly, and there will be a surprise waiting for you, lol_

A surprise? I wonder what that could be. I shrugged knowing Id find out soon, and then realized I should be hurrying. Pocketing my cell and grabbing my bag, I headed out the door into the bright morning sunlight.

From now on it'll just be me, Rai as Andante, my friends, and the eternal alternate reality, The World. I could still clearly hear the very first words Yokuro, as Welk, told me.

Welcome to The World


End file.
